Cuscuta planiflora - Flat-Flower Dodder

The parasitic, annual Flat-Flower Dodder vine has no chlorophyll at all. The thin, thread-like stems are hairless, scarlet to yellowish in color, and up to 0.3 mm broad. To get water and nutrients, the stems entwine around the host plants, eventually creating a tangled mat, and pierce the tissues with suckers that resemble warts. The leaves have either vanished or shrunk to tiny scales. Along the stems, the tiny, primarily white blooms are grouped in dense clusters up to 6 mm in diameter. Each flower has five sepals and five petals. The triangular sepals are shortly fused at the base, fleshy towards the tip and are slightly shorter than the petals. The petals measure 1.5-2.5 mm long and are fused for about half their length to form a bell-shaped flower with five spreading triangular lobes. The flower lobes are fleshy and swollen at the tip. Flat-Flower Dodder is found in Macaronesia, Mediterranean to NW India, Eritrea to S. Africa.