Family |
Convolvulaceae
Cuscuta epithymum var. rubella
(Engelm.) Trab.
Cuscuta epithymum (L.) L. var. rubella (Engelm.) 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, reddish to pinkish or pale orange, leafless, attaching to host plants by haustoria.
• Leaves : Leaves reduced to minute, scale-like structures, without chlorophyll.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Flowers small, pinkish to reddish or pale rose, grouped in compact glomerules 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 : Corse, Lebanon-Syria, Tunisia.
• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished from var. alba by its pinkish to reddish flowers; identification within the Cuscuta epithymum complex relies mainly on floral colour, corolla structure and host association.