Flora of New Zealand Series

dodder

Annual herb; stems very slender, glabrous, pink or reddish, often forming dense twining masses. Scale lvs minute. Infl. a bracteate, sessile head or glomerule, usually 4-8 mm diam. at anthesis. Fls pink to white, sessile, 5-merous. Calyx deeply lobed, 1.5-2 mm long, broad-campanulate; lobes broadly rhombic-ovate or triangular, acute. Corolla 3-4 × c. 2.5 mm; lobes ?-1/2 length of tube, triangular or nearly so, patent, acute or acuminate. Scales < corolla tube, connate over the ovary, strongly fimbriate. Stamens = or slightly < corolla lobes. Styles and stigmas = or > ovary; stigmas linear or filiform. Capsule c. 2 mm diam., depressed-globose. Seeds 2-3, c. 1 mm long, trigonous, alveolate, ± asymmetric at base.

N.; S.: widespread and locally common.

Europe, W. Asia 1873

Mostly a parasite of legumes, especially Trifolium spp., but also on a wide range of hosts, including a number of indigenous spp., and even recorded on bracken, Pteridium esculentum.

FL Nov-Apr.

C. novae-zelandiae Kirk, originally treated as indigenous, is based on a specimen of C. epithymum. The sp. has also been recorded as C. trifolii in N.Z.