M.T.M. RAJPUT & S.S. TAHIR

Stem coarse, with violet spots, spirally climbing round the host stem, not interlaced. Leaves membranous, widely ovate, with pink or violet spots, acute, 1.3-2.6 x c. 1 mm. Flowers in cymes, ivory white with violet spots, 5-63 mm long, pedicel 0.4 mm long, violet; bracts leaflike; calyx lobes 5, imbricate, widely ovate, obtuse, membranous at the edges thick and fleshy in the centre, outer surface papillate, having violet folds, 2-3.5 x 1.5-2.0 mm; tube c. 1 mm long. Corolla lobes 5, inflexed, oblong-triangular, ivory white, 1.5-2.0 x c. 1 mm; tube 3.5-5.0 nun long, becoming subglobose to urceolate in fruit; scales fringed, reaching half of the corolla tube, membranous 1-1.5 x 1-1.3 mm; Stamens 5, sessile, basal fused filament part prominent; anther basifixed, oblong, 1-12 x c. 0.5 mm. Ovary globular, 1-1.2 x c. 0.5 mm, light yellow below, dark brown above. Style 1, subulate, brown to violet, 0.5-0.7 mm long; stigmas 2, v-shaped, deep violet, 0.4-0.5 mm long; ovules 4, papillate, reniform, 0.5-0.6 x c. 0.4 mm. Capsule 4-4.5 x 5-5.5 mm, conical to bell-shaped, circumscissile with a definite line of cleavage and leaving the dissepiment with the calyx, covered by thick subglobose to urceolate corolla tube, more or less cartilaginous, not depressed, without interstylar opening, surmounted by petals, stamens, style and stigma. Seeds 2.2-2.5 x 2.5 mm, rhomboid to triangular, with coiled embryo, mostly 4, but only 2 maturing, papillate.

Fl. Per.: August-September.

Holotype: A-4 Rush Gol, 23.8.1981, Kamal Akhtar Malik & S. Nasimuddin 1700 (KUH).

Distribution: Baluchistan, Chitral.

This species is different from all the other species of Cuscuta by its corolla tube which is subglobose to urceolate on the capsule. It is endemic to Pakistan.