Cuscuta

"Dodder" redirects here. For the river in Dublin, see River Dodder.
This article is about a genus in the family Convolvulaceae. Not to be confused with a similar-looking, unrelated genus Cassytha, in the Lauraceae.

Cuscuta
Cuscuta europaea on Sambucus ebulus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Convolvulaceae
Tribe: Cuscuteae
Genus: Cuscuta
L.
Species

See list

Cuscuta
Cuscuta

Cuscuta (/kʌsˈkjuːtə/), commonly known as dodder or amarbel, is a genus of over 201 species of yellow, orange, or red (rarely green) parasitic plants. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, it now is accepted as belonging in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae, on the basis of the work of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.[1] The genus is found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world, with the greatest species diversity in subtropical and tropical regions; the genus becomes rare in cool temperate climates, with only four species native to northern Europe.[2]

Folk names include strangle tare, strangleweed, scaldweed, beggarweed,[3] lady's laces, fireweed,[4] wizard's net, devil's guts, devil's hair, devil's ringlet, goldthread, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, love vine, pull-down, angel hair, and witch's hair.[5]

  1. ^ Stefanovic, S.; Olmstead, R. G. (2004). "Testing the phylogenetic position of a parasitic plant (Cuscuta, Convolvulaceae, Asteridae): Bayesian inference and the parametric bootstrap on data drawn from three genomes". Systematic Biology. 53 (3): 384–99. doi:10.1080/10635150490445896. PMID 15503669.
  2. ^ Costea, M. (2007). "Digital Atlas of Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae)". Ontario, Canada: Wilfrid Laurier University Herbarium. Archived from the original on 2018-04-04. Cuscuta has a major role in ayurveda also. Cuscuta is a traditional medicine in China, India, etc.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  3. ^ Davidson, Tish; Frey, Rebecca (2005). "Cuscuta". Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine.
  4. ^ Cunningham, Scott (2012). Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs. Llewellyn Worldwide. p. 149. ISBN 9780738717135.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference npr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).