Scale-flower dodder

Stems yellow to orange, slender. Inflorescences dense, glomer­ulate or short-spiciform; bracts at base of clusters and flowers (2–)4 or 5(–10), ovate-orbiculate to ovate-triangular, membra­nous, margins denticulate, apex erect, acute to cuspidate. Ped­icels absent. Flowers 5-merous, 5–6 mm, membranous, not papillate; calyx straw yellow, campanulate, 1/2–2/3 corolla tube length, divided to base or nearly so, finely reticulate, shiny, lobes ovate, broadly overlapping, margins denticulate, midvein not carinate, apex acute to cuspidate; corolla white, drying creamy, straw yellow, or light brown, 4–5.5 mm, tube cylindric, 2.4–3.5 mm, not saccate, lobes spreading to reflexed, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 1/3–4/5 corolla tube length, margins entire, apex usually acute, sometimes cuspidate, straight; infrastaminal scales oblong, 2.4–3.4 mm, equaling corolla tube length, bridged at 0.7–1.5 mm, rounded, uniformly densely fimbriate, fimbriae 0.2–0.4 mm; stamens barely exserted, shorter than corolla lobes; filaments 0.5–0.7 mm; anthers 0.6–0.9 × 0.5–0.6 mm; styles filiform, 2.5–3.3 mm, longer than ovary. Capsules subglobose or ovoid to subconic, 3.4–4.5 × 2.2–3 mm, ± raised and thickened around rela­tively small interstylar aperture, not translucent, capped by withered corolla, indehiscent. Seeds 2–4, slightly obcompressed, subglobose, broadly ellipsoid to obo­void, 1.5–1.7 × 1.1–1.3 mm, hilum area subterminal.

Flowering Mar–Oct. Hosts: Asteraceae and others; 900–1500 m; N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico.