bio.wikisort.org - Plant

Cassytha filiformis or love-vine is an orangish, wiry, parasitic vine in the laurel family (Lauraceae), found in warm tropical regions worldwide in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific. It is an obligate parasite, meaning it cannot complete its life-cycle without another host plant. Research in Florida (in southeast United States) has found that love-vine inhibits gall wasps by attacking the galls (small growths on plants) that the wasps create for their young. The plant is one of many considered an aphrodisiac in the Caribbean, lending the name "love-vine."

Cassytha filiformis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Magnoliids
Order:	Laurales
Family:	Lauraceae
Genus:	Cassytha
Species:	C. filiformis
Binomial name
Cassytha filiformis L.[1]
SynonymsThe Plant List
Calodium cochinchinense Lour. Calodium cochinchinensis Lour. Cassytha americana Nees Cassytha americana var. brachystachya Meisn. Cassytha americana var. brasiliensis (Mart. ex Nees) Meisn. Cassytha americana var. puberula Meisn. Cassytha aphylla Raeusch. Cassytha archboldiana C.K.Allen Cassytha brasiliensis Mart. ex Nees Cassytha corniculata Burm.f. Cuscuta reflexa Roxb. Cassytha cuscutiformis F. Muell. Cassytha dissitiflora Meisn. Cassytha filiformis var. pseudopubescens Domin Cassytha filiformis f. pycnantha Domin Cassytha guineensis Schumach. & Thonn. Cassytha lifuensis Guillaumin Cassytha macrocarpa Guillaumin Cassytha novoguineensis Kaneh. & Hatus. Cassytha paradoxae Proctor Cassytha senegalensis A.Chev. Cassytha timoriensis Gand. Cassytha zeylanica Gaertn. Rumputris fasciculata Raf. Spironema aphylla Raf. Volutella aphylla Forssk.

Distribution

The species has a native pantropical distribution encompassing the Americas, Indomalaya, Australasia, Polynesia and tropical Africa.[2][3]

Description

Cassytha filiformis is a twining vine with an orange to pale green stem. Leaves are reduced to scales about 1 mm long. Flowers are borne in spikes or sometimes solitary. There are six tepals, each 0.1-2.0 mm long. Fruit is a drupe about 7 mm in diameter.[2]

Uses and relationship with humans

In the Caribbean region, it is one of several plants known as "love vine" because it has a reputation as an aphrodisiac.[4]

The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that the "This and other species of Cassytha are called " Dodder-laurel." The emphatic name of "Devil's guts" is largely used. It frequently connects bushes and trees by cords, and becomes a nuisance to the traveller. "This plant is used by the Brahmins of Southern India for seasoning their buttermilk. (Treasury of Botany?)".[5]

Gall wasps

A 2018 study revealed how a southern Florida subspecies of this widespread species is involved in a newly discovered form of trophic interaction involving gall-forming cynipid wasps. New tendrils will actively seek out galls made by the gall wasp, Belonocnema treatae, on leaves of a host oak tree, Quercus geminata. The findings show that galls attacked by haustoria were associated with a 45% less survival rate for the wasps, suggesting that C. filiformis has an important negative impact on gall wasp survival. In the study,[6] other species of plant and wasp galls are parasitised by this plant in the southern Florida area too.

References

External links

• Love Vine at Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, University of Florida
• Egan, Scott P.; Zhang, Linyi; Comerford, Mattheau; Hood, Glen R. (20 August 2018). "Botanical parasitism of an insect by a parasitic plant". Current Biology. 28 (16): R863–R864. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.024. PMID 30130501. S2CID 52058081.
• Cassytha filiformis in West African plants – A Photo Guide.

На других языках

---

- [en] Cassytha filiformis

---

[ru] Кассита нитевидная

Касси́та нитеви́дная[2] (лат. Cassytha filiformis) — вид двудольных растений рода Cassytha семейства Лавровые (Lauraceae). Таксономическое название было опубликовано шведским систематиком Карлом Линнеем в 1753 году[3][4].

---

---