Puneet Varma (Editor)

Cuscuta salina

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Kingdom
  
Family
  
Scientific name
  
Cuscuta salina

Rank
  
Species

Order
  
Genus
  
Cuscuta

Higher classification
  
Dodder

Cuscuta salina nathistocbioucieduPlants20of20Upper20Newpor

Similar
  
Dodder, Cuscuta californica, Cuscuta pacifica, Convolvulaceae, Cuscuta sandwichiana

Cuscuta salina is a species of dodder known by the common name salt marsh dodder.

Contents

It is native to western North America, where it lives in seasonal alkaline or saline habitats such as vernal pools and salt flats. It is a parasitic plant, wrapping itself around wetland vegetation and tapping them for nutrients with its haustoria.

Cuscuta salina Cuscuta salina Wildflowers in Santa Barbara

Description

Cuscuta salina Cuscuta salina Engelm

Cuscuta salina is a slender annual vine extending yellowish thready stems to wrap tightly around other plants. The leaves are rudimentary and scale-like. The dodder produces flowers with white glandular corollas. Each is bell-shaped with five pointed triangular lobes.

Taxonomy

Previous treatments of the species divided it into three varieties. In 2009, two of them were combined into a separate species called Cuscuta pacifica. The two species can easily be differentiated by habitat geography: the varieties of Cuscuta pacifica grow solely in coastal habitats while Cuscuta salina sensu stricto grows inland in alkaline or saline seasonally wet habitats such as vernal pools and salt flats, such as the margins of the Great Salt Lake.

Cuscuta salina Colin Purrington Photography Baylands Nature Preserve Saltmarsh

Cuscuta salina Cuscuta salina salt marsh dodder Wildflowers of the Pacific

Cuscuta salina Plants Profile for Cuscuta salina saltmarsh dodder

References

Cuscuta salina Wikipedia