CUSCUTACEAE

DODDER FAMILY

Yellow or white parasitic plants, with very slender twining stems.  Leaves reduced to minute alternate scales.  Flowers cymosely clustered, small, white, yellow or pinkish, 5-merous or rarely 4-merous.  Calyx lobed or parted or the sepals sometimes distinct.  Corolla campanulate, urceolate, ovoid or cylindric, the lobes imbricate in the bud.  Stamens alternate with the lobes and inserted in the throat or sinuses above the scales, included or short-exserted.  Pistil 1, superior; ovary globose to ellipsoid, 2-celled; ovules 2 in each cell; styles 2, terminal, distinct or rarely united below.  Capsule globose or ovoid, circumscissile or irregularly dehiscent, or indehiscent.  Seeds 1-4, globose or angular, glabrous.  Cotyledons none, but apex bearing 1-4 minute scales.  (Abrams, Vol. III 390).

Upper Newport Bay species within the family:

Cuscuta californica var. californica #

Cuscuta salina var. major #