Cuscuta europaea var. indica Engelmann; C. major Bauhin.

Stems yellowish or reddish, filiform. Inflorescences lateral, compact glomerules, few to many flowered. Pedicel to 1.5 mm. Calyx cupular; sepals 4 or 5, triangular-ovate, sometimes unequal, ca. 1.5 mm. Corolla pink, urceolate, 2.5-3 mm; lobes 4 or sometimes 5, persistent, often reflexed, triangular-ovate. Stamens inserted below sinus; filaments longer than anthers; anthers ovate-circular; scales very thin, obovate, 2-cleft or sometimes entire, sparingly fimbriate. Ovary subglobose. Styles 2; stigmas divergent or curved, filiform, ca. as long as or shorter than styles. Capsule capped by withered corolla, subglobose, ca. 3 mm in diam., circumscissile. Seeds often 4, pale brown, elliptic, ca. 1 mm, scabrous. 2n = 14.

Open grassy localities, streamsides, hilly areas on Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Chenopodiaceae, and other herbaceous plants; 800-3100 m. Gansu, Heilongjiang, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Japan, Kashmir; N Africa, W Asia, Europe, occasionally in North and South America].