General Information

COMMON NAMES: Dodder, Western Field Dodder TRADITIONAL NAMES: Tīaea (MG) GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE w.USA.; EXOTIC Tropical Asia and Pacific, incl. Hawai‘i and Fiji COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Recent, Naturalised; Land, lowlands SIGNIFICANCE LIST: ; Weed - serious (Mangaia only) KEY FEATURES: A leafless parasitic vine. STEMS pale yellow to orange, very slender. FLOWERS in globose clusters; each 3mmØ, petals trangular and spreading, white to pale green. FRUIT subglobose 3mmØ; seeds usually 2, 1mm long.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea: Present
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
+	++++	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Northern Group: -
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-	-	-	-	-	-

Cuscuta campestris Yuncker
SYNONYMS: Cuscuta pentagona var. calycina

TAXONOMY: PLANTAE; ANTHOPHYTA (=Angiospermae); MAGNOLIOPSIDA (=Dicotyledones); ASTERIDAE; Solanales; CUSCUTACEAE

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -
NEGATIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Weed - serious (Mangaia only). Comments: One of the most widespread and destructive weeds on Mangaia, in gardens, Taro patches, and in waste and fallow areas. The plant is also in a few places on Rarotonga. Efforts should be made to present its accidently introduction to other islands.

GENERAL NOTE: There are more than 150 speices of Cuscuta in temperate and tropical areas. The name Dodder/Doder is a German name from 1200 AD for species of this genus, and in later centuries it was also applied to a few other leafless parasitic plants. The English term dodder/doddery meaning to shake, tremble, or be unstable emerged during the 1600s.

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: fieldspecimen+photo, nr Kiikii Motel, 2000, ID GM.

References:
p.582 Wagner et al.- Flowering Plants of Hawaii
p.711 Neal - In Gardens of Hawaii
p.5/070 A.C.Smith - Flora Vitiensis Nova
p.402a Whistler - Ethnobotany of the Cook Islands

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zD02

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