Flax dodder, cuscute du lin

Stems yellow-orange, slender to medium. Inflorescences: bracts ovate, membranous, margins entire, apex obtuse. Pedicels absent. Flowers 5-merous, 3–4 mm, membranous; papillae absent; calyx creamy yellow, cupulate, equaling or longer than corolla tube, divided 1/2–2/3 its length, not notably reticulate or shiny, lobes broadly ovate, bases overlapping, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate; corolla white, drying creamy yellow, initially globose, later urceolate, 2.8–3.7 mm, tube 2.5–3 mm, not saccate, lobes erect to spreading, ovate-triangular, 1/4–1/3(–1/2) corolla tube length, margins entire, apex subobtuse to acute, straight to incurved; infrastaminal scales spatulate, 0.8–1.5 mm, 1/2–4/5 corolla tube length, bridged at 0.3–0.5 mm, base truncate, entire or 2-fid, short-fimbriate apically, fimbriae 0.03–0.15 mm; sta­mens included or barely exserted, shorter than corolla lobes; filaments 0.2–0.4 mm; anthers 0.3–0.5 × 0.3–0.4 mm; styles slightly subulate; style plus stigmas 0.5–1.1 mm, shorter than ovary; stigmas cylindric to terete, 0.3–0.6 mm, ± equaling styles. Capsules depressed-globose, ± angular, 2.8–3.5 × 3–4.2 mm, not thickened or raised around interstylar aperture, not translucent, capped by withered corolla. Seeds 4, usually connate in pairs, angled, subglobose or broadly ellipsoid to ovoid, 1.1–1.2 × 0.9–1 mm, hilum region terminal. 2n = 42.

Flowering Jun–Jul. Hosts: primarily Linum usitatissimum but once established on flax, it may also attach to secondary hosts such as Camelina sativa and Guizotia abyssinica; 0–200 m; introduced; Que.; Del., Md., Mass., Mich., N.J., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., Vt., Wash., Wyo.; Europe; Asia.

Cuscuta epilinum is an ephemeral associated exclu­sively with flax. It apparently coevolved with flax since its domestication in the Nile Valley or the Middle East (M. A. García and M. P. Martín 2007).