Cassytha filiformis

Cassytha filiformis, common name love-vine, is a species of obligate parasitic vine in the family Lauraceae. The species has a native pantropical distribution encompassing the Americas, Indomalaya, Australasia, Polynesia and tropical Africa [2][3] In the Caribbean region, it is one of several plants known as "Love vine" because it has a reputation as an aphrodisiac.[4]

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
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.

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]

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]

A 2018 study revealed how a southern Florida subspecies of this widespread species has developed a complex form of carnivorous plant behaviour. New tendrils will actively seek out galls made by the gall wasp, Belonocnema treatae, on leaves of a host oak tree, Quercus geminata. Once its haustoria -- the parasitic growth that infects its host -- penetrates the gall, the larvae shrivel as this parasitic plant drains both the gall and its inhabitant. In the study [6] , other species of plant and gall wasp become parasitised by this plant in the southern Florida area too.

Cassytha filiformis, Hawaii
Clump of Cassytha filiformis, Bahamas, which the locals call "Bahamian Love Vine"
Cassytha filiformis flowers

References
  1. "Cassytha filiformis". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2013-01-28.
  2. Flora of North America vol 3
  3. D. S. Correll & M. C. Johnston. 1970. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas. University of Texas at Dallas.
  4. Esbaugh, W. Hardy; McClure, Susan A. & Bolyard, Judith L. Bush Medicine Studies, Andros Island, Bahamas. Proceedings of the first symposium on the botany of the Bahamas June 11–14, 1985. Ed. Robert R. Smith., San Salvador, Bahamas.
  5. J. H. Maiden (1889). The useful native plants of Australia : Including Tasmania. Turner and Henderson, Sydney.
  6. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30815-7
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