Cuscuta compacta

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Cuscuta compacta
Cuscuta compacta AFP.jpg
Photo by the Atlas of Florida Plants Database
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida - Dicots
Order: Solanales
Family: Cuscutaceae
Genus: Cuscuta
Species: C. compacta
Binomial name
Cuscuta compacta
Juss
CUSC COMP DIST.JPG
Natural range of Cuscuta compacta from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common Name: compact dodder[1][2]

Taxonomic Notes

Varieties: C. compacta var. compacta; C. compacta var. efimbriata[1][2]

Description

Distribution

C. compacta occurs from Nebraska, south to Texas, eastward to central peninsular Florida, and northward to Illinois, New York, and New Hampshire.[1][2] It has also been introduced in Quebec Canada.[2]

Ecology

Habitat

C. compacta is found on herbaceous and woody hosts in bottomland forests, stream banks, marshes, swamps, pine savannahs, wet fields, and other wet habitats.[1]

Phenology

In the southern and mid-Atlantic United States, C. compacta flowers from late July through November.[1][3]

Use by animals

Pawnee Indians would use C. compacta to dye materials, such as feathers, orange. Maidens of the Pawnee would also use the parasite for divination to determine if their suitors sincerely loved them. A Mexican Indian has reported that rattlesnakes would take this plant into their dens for food.[4]

Conservation and Management

Cultivation and restoration

Photo Gallery

References and notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Weakley AS (2015) Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Herbarium.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 USDA NRCS (2016) The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 24 January 2018). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC 27401-4901 USA.
  3. Nelson G (24 January 2018) PanFlora. Retrieved from gilnelson.com/PanFlora/
  4. Gilmore MR (1919) Uses of plants by the indians of the Missouri river region. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Annual Report 33.