Caribbean dodder

Stems yellow-orange, slender. Inflorescences glomerulate or compact-paniculiform, 15–70­-­flowered, flowers subsessile; bracts at base of clusters 1, at base of pedicels 0–2, ovate to lanceolate, membranous, mar­gins entire, apex acuminate to attenuate. Pedicels 0.2–0.6 mm. Flowers 5-merous, 2.5–4 mm, membranous, not papil­late; calyx brownish, campanulate, equaling corolla tube length, divided 1/2–2/3 its length, not retic­ulate, shiny, lobes oblong, obovate, ovate, or spatulate, bases overlapping, margins entire or finely serrulate-denticulate, midvein not carinate, apex acute to obtuse, each exceeded by hornlike appendage, 0.3–0.6 mm; corolla creamy white, drying brown, 2.2–3.2 mm, tube campanulate, 1.2–1.6 mm, not saccate, lobes spreading to reflexed, ovate to lanceolate, equaling corolla tube length, each with subapical, hornlike projection, 0.3–0.7 mm, margins entire or irregularly denticulate, apex obtuse, straight; infrastaminal scales oblong to broadly ovate or rounded, 1.2–1.6 mm, equaling corolla tube length, bridged at 0.5–0.7 mm, sparsely, uniformly short-fimbriate, fimbriae 0.04–0.1 mm; stamens exserted, shorter than corolla lobes; filaments 0.3–0.9 mm; anthers 0.4–0.5 × 0.2–0.3 mm; styles stout, ± subulate, 0.9–2 mm, longer than ovary. Capsules globose to slightly depressed, 1.8–2.3 × 1–2 mm, not thickened or raised around relatively small interstylar aperture, not translucent or becoming translucent very late, capped by withered corolla, dehiscence circum­scissile. Seeds 1–4, angled, subglobose or ovoid to broadly ellipsoid, 0.7–1.1 × 0.7–0.9 mm, hilum region subterminal.

Flowering Jul–Nov. Hosts: herbs and woody plants; 0–10 m; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies (Puerto Rico); Central America; n South America.

Cuscuta boldinghii was reported from Florida as a parasite of Citrus (L. C. Knorr 1949); it was collected again in Florida (Monroe County) in 2002.

Cuscuta boldinghii and C. erosa are the only species in the flora area bearing hornlike appendages with sto­mata on corolla lobes (M. Costea et al. 2011).