| Author | Willdenow ex Roemer & J.A. Schultes | |
| Distribution | Essentially statewide, though about half of the counties lack collections. Nonetheless, the counties where collected span the entire state, except for a lack of records from the southernmost counties of the Coastal Plain and eastern Piedmont (certainly an artifact of collection).
This is a very wide-ranging species across most of the continent, except for a few Far Western states. | |
| Abundance | Frequent to common in the Mountains, and fairly common to common (and clearly under-collected) in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. | |
| Habitat | This is essentially a wetland species, growing on a variety of herbaceous or woody plants. It is found in bottomlands and openings, along stream margins, marshes, swamps, wet fields, and other damp places. | |
| Phenology | Blooms from August to October, and fruits shortly after flowering. | |
| Identification | See Taxonomic Comments. The description from Gleason (1952): "Flowers 2.5-4 mm. long, sessile or subsessile in dense clusters. Calyx short, its lobes broadly round-ovate to subrotund, overlapping, scarcely reaching the middle of the corolla-tube. Corolla-lobes broadly ovate, obtuse, spreading, shorter than the tube. Scales commonly copiously fringed, reaching to the sinuses of the corolla. Styles nearly as long as the ovary. Capsule commonly globose-ovoid, about 3 mm. in diameter; seeds about 1.5 mm. long." | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Weakley (2024) splits out Cuscuta saururi from this species. However, no SERNEC specimens exist by this name, nor does Google contain information on this taxon. Thus, this website does not believe that elevating saururi to full species at the present time is warranted by the data. His map shows it as uncommon" in all three NC provinces.
The species of Cuscuta all share a few similar features, and they are difficult to separate except by mostly small characters, best seen with a hand lens or microscope. Each is a parasitic vine, lacking roots or true leaves, and nearly all are orange or yellow in color, twining up its host plant with the use of tiny aerial "roots". The small white flowers are in clusters along the stem. These plants should be quite familiar as a group, often presenting a tangled mass of orange vines growing over other plants. See Weakley (2018) or other references for keys to assist in identification. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | Swamp Dodder, Scaldweed | |
| State Rank | S5 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
