Flora-Fauna

Cuscuta epithymum (L.) L. var. alba (J.Presl & C.Presl) Trab.

(First published in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 53(sess. extr.): 37 (1907); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2; 1969)

• Life-form & habit : Annual holoparasitic therophyte; stems filiform, twining, yellowish to pale orange, leafless, attaching to host plants by numerous haustoria.

• Leaves : Leaves reduced to minute, scale-like structures, without chlorophyll.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Flowers small, whitish to pale cream, grouped in compact clusters along the parasitic stems; calyx short, 4–5-lobed; corolla campanulate to urceolate, with short lobes; stamens included.

• Fruit : Capsule small, globose, enclosed by the persistent corolla; seeds minute, hard, brownish, usually several per capsule.

• Phenology : Flowers from May to August; fruiting from June to September.

• Habitat & elevation : Parasitic on low herbs and shrubs in dry grasslands, scrub, field margins and open rocky habitats; from low elevations to montane zones.

• Lebanese distribution : Scattered in Lebanon, probably overlooked because of its parasitic habit and small flowers.

• Native range : Baleares, France, Greece, Lebanon-Syria, Morocco, Portugal, Sicilia, Turkmenistan.

• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished from typical Cuscuta epithymum by its paler, whitish flowers; like other dodders, identification depends mainly on floral structure, host association and capsule characters rather than vegetative morphology.