Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 124 (1753).

Derivation: Italian and Neo-Lafin cuscuta, from Arabic kushuta, dodder.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Dodders.

Description:
Mainly annual parasites with twining yellow, brown or reddish leafless stems.

Inflorescence axillary, bracteate, flowers 4- or 5- rarely 3-merous in simple or compound cymose clusters; sepals united at the base (free in some non-Australian species); corolla tubular or campanulate, lobes imbricate in the bud, glabrous; stamens inserted at the throat and alternating with the corolla lobes; filaments narrowly triangular, with fimbriate infrastaminal scales; pollen smooth; ovary glabrous, 2-celled, with 2 ovules per cell; styles 2, free (united in some extra-Australian species), with capitate or elongate stigmas.

Capsule subglobular to ovoid, indehiscent or dehiscing from the base; seeds 4, granular.

Distribution:  Cosmopolitan genus of about 170 species, 5 species native to and 7 naturalised in Australia.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Stigmas capitate
2. Flowers in dense globular clusters; pedicels less than 2.5 mm long
3. Styles absent or almost so; corolla mainly 3- or 4-lobed	C. victoriana 6.
3. Styles c. 1 mm long; corolla mainly 5-lobed	C. campestris 1.
2. Flowers in loose few-flowered clusters; pedicels 3-6 mm long
4. Calyx as long as corolla tube, corolla lobes obtuse as long as or longer than the tube	C. tasmanica 5.
4. Calyx shorter than corolla tube, corolla lobes acuie, shorter than the tube	C. suaveolens 4.
1. Stigmas linear
5. Corolla 3-4 mm long	C. epithymum 2.
5. Corolla 1.5-2 mm long	C. planiflora 3.

Author: Not yet available