Cuscuta indecora Choisy var. indecora, showy dodder, pretty dodder, large–seed dodder, large alfalfa dodder. Cuscuta indecora var. indecora — SHOWY DODDER, PRETTY DODDER, LARGE–SEED DODDER, LARGE ALFALFA DODDER [Convolvulaceae/Cuscutaceae] Annual parasitic vine, flexible–stemmed, attached to host stem and other organs by haustoria; shoots essentially leafless, light orange (lacking chlorophyll), glabrous.
Stems threadlike and cylindric, 0.2—0.5 mm diameter, fleshy, light orange, smooth; the thickest where haustoria initiate. Leaves, helically alternate, simple, sessile, without stipules; blade infrequent, cupped awl–shaped, 1.1—1.4 mm long, transparent light orange.
Inflorescence cyme, axillary, several–flowered, bracteate, glabrous; bract = leaf subtending pedicel at top of peduncle; pedicel cylindric, to 4 mm long, orangish but white at base of flower, minutely bumpy with strongly domed cells (“papillate”).
Flower bisexual, radial, ± 2.5 mm across; receptacle flat but fleshy on lower side; calyx 5–lobed, ca. 2 mm long, colorless, thick, and watery; tube short bell–shaped, 1—1.2 mm long, with 5 furrows descending from sinuses, papillate; lobes cupped–ovate, 0.8—1 × 1.1—1.3 mm, slightly overlapping and bending inward covering top of flower (inflexed tip); corolla 5–lobed, 2 mm long, white, not fleshy; tube short, not papillate; throat cup–shaped, papillate on outer surface, inner surface with 5 appendages opposite bases of stamens (infrastaminal scales), the appendages arising from top of corolla tube, tongue–shaped, ca. 0.8 mm long including conspicuous hairlike fringes on margins base–to–top; lobes ± deltate, ca. 0.6 × 0.8 mm, with inflexed tips, papillate on outer surface; stamens 5, attached just above corolla appendages; filaments erect, stout tapered base–to–tip, ± 0.7 mm long, white, not papillate; anthers slightly exserted, basifixed, dithecal, 0.4 × 0.5 mm, orange–yellow (golden yellow), longitudinally dehiscent; pollen orange–yellow; nectary disc covering lower portion of ovary, flat ring, 0.35 mm long, glossy green, ± smooth (not papillate); pistil 1; ovary superior, upper portion wheel–like, 0.45 × 1 mm, light green, papillate above midpoint, 2–chambered, each chamber with 2 ovules; styles 2, rising from with depression, erect to suberect, subequal, cylindric, 0.6—0.75 mm long, white + stigmas, stigma capitate, 0.35 —0.4 mm wide, length < width, light orange.
Fruit berrylike capsule becoming papery–walled, opening at top and rupturing irregularly, 2—4–seeded, subspheroid, ca. 2.5 mm.
Seed ovoid, 1.6—1.8 mm long, with 1 or 2 flat areas on broader half of inward–facing side.
A. C. Gibson