Cassytha pubescens
Dodder Laurel
Dodder Laurel
A weed at the ANBG
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Magnoliids > Laurales > Lauraceae > Cassytha pubescens
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Overview:
Cassytha pubescens is a native Australian hemiparasitic vine species, in the Laurel family
It is a widespread and common species in south eastern Australia
Stems are between 0.5mm and 1.5mm in diameter and the haustoria are between 2 and 3 mm long
Cassytha pubescens is often compared with the genus Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae) due to similarities in their morphology and herbaceous parasitic habit
Common name: Dodder Laurel
Common names for the species include devils twine, dodder-laurel, spilled devil's twine, snotty gobble or downy dodder-laurel
Conservation status: . . .
Etymology:
Cassytha from the Greek word kassyo 'sew' or 'patch'
Pubescens from the Latin pubescens - attaining puberty, becoming shortly hairy
Flowers
Flowers may occur on spikes, racemes or panicles and are either sessile or almost sessile
Peduncles can be 3-20mm long with or without hairs
Peduncles up to 10 cm have been noted in specimens from NE NSW and QLD
Flowers have pubescent petals and 9 stamens, with the outer stamens dorsiventrally flattened
Flowering occurs in summer through the months of December to April with fruit developing from March to April
Fruit:
When fleshy, fruit can be green, greeny-red, grey to greeny-red in colour and may be anywhere between smooth to pubescent
Fruit is globose to obovoid in shape and ranges in size from 6-10mm × 5.5-9mm
Fruit may be covered in dull green to dull-reddy brown bands
Fruit is grey to black when dry/ drying
Leaves:
Leaves are reduced to scales and photosynthesis is achieved through chlorophyll contained in the plants stems
Stem & branches:
Stems are between 0.5 and 1.5 mm thick and can be highly variable in appearance
In darker more humid conditions the stems have been noted to be dark green in colour, glabrescent and with very few pale grey hairs
However stems can be glabrescent to pubescent, smooth to wrinkly and can vary in colour on a single plant
Roots:
Habit:
Cassytha pubescens grows as a photosynthetic stem that twines around itself and around the branches of its host
High variation exists in flowers, fruits, stems and trichomes within individuals, across individuals in a population and across populations of Cassytha pubescens
It has been speculated that the variation is likely a result of a combination of reproductive isolation across populations and in some cases phenotypic modification to different environments
Habitat:
Most commonly found in dry forests in woodlands
It does not not extend into arid regions
Distribution:
Widespread along the east coast of Australia. The species extends from the south-east of Queensland into the eastern half of NSW and into south-eastern South Australia
The species is also found across eastern and western regions of Victoria and Tasmania
Additional notes:
Taxonomy
The species was first formally described in 1810 by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown in Prodromus Flora Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen (Prodromus of the Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land)
Ecology
Cassytha pubescens has a very wide host range but is mostly confined to both native and invasive woody perennial shrubs
Cassytha pubescens spreads mostly through vegetative growth, using haustoria to fuse itself around the stems of its host
The haustoria in Cassytha pubescens are disk like organs that penetrate the xylem of their host in order to extract water and essential nutrients
Host attachment must occur within the first 6 weeks after germination for survival
Suggestions have been made to use Cassytha pubescens as a biological control due to its possible adverse effect on invasive hosts compared with native hosts
A study comparing the effects of the hemiparasite on native Leptospermum myrsinoides and the invasive legume Cytisus scoparius, found that Cassytha had little to no effect on the Leptospermum and significantly decreased the biomass and physiological capabilities of the introduced legume
Sources of information: