Cuscuta campestris Yunck.
Annual herb; stems filiform, commonly yellow or orange, often forming dense masses. Scale lvs minute. Infl. a bracteate, sessile, globose head or glomerule 5-10 mm diam. at anthesis. Fls whitish, shortly pedicellate, 5-merous. Calyx deeply lobed, c. 1.5 mm long, broad-campanulate; lobes suborbicular to broad-ovate, obtuse. Corolla c. 3 mm long; lobes c. = tube, triangular, acute or shortly acuminate, patent. Scales > corolla tube and reaching stamens, free, prominently fimbriate. Stamens < corolla lobes. Styles slightly < or = ovary; stigma subcapitate. Capsule 2-3 mm diam., depressed-globose. Seeds 2-4, c. 1.5 mm long, angular, very finely reticulate.
N.: rare and local.
Probably N. America 1944
A parasite of carrot and sugar beet crops, also of wild hosts such as Calystegia sepium.
FL Jan-Mar.
Overseas this dodder parasitises a wide range of herbaceous dicotyledons and monocotyledons. In N.Z. it has been known as C. arvensis and has been confused with C. epithymum.
