3. Cuscuta compacta Juss. (compact dodder)

Pl. 364 a–c; Map 1585

Stems relatively stout, usually 1–2 mm in diameter. Flowers 4–5 mm long, with smooth to slightly irregular surfaces, subtended by 2–5 overlapping, ovate to orbicular bracts, forming dense, sessile, ropelike clusters along main stems, occasionally also with tight clusters on short side branches. Calyces about 1/2 as long as the corolla tube, mostly hidden by the bracts, deeply 5-lobed into separate or nearly distinct sepals, the sepals ovate to orbicular, rounded at the tip, strongly overlapping basally, but not angled. Corollas with 5 rounded lobes, these spreading, with straight tips. Infrastaminal scales reaching filament bases, narrowly oval, densely fringed along the margins. Fruits globose to conical, the wall slightly thickened at the tip. Seeds 2.0–2.6 mm long. July–October.

Scattered, mostly in the southeastern quarter of the state (eastern U.S. west to Texas). Occurs in bottomland forests, swamps, and on the banks of streams and sinkhole ponds. Parasitic on both woody and herbaceous hosts, including species of Alnus, Apios, Aralia, Campsis, Cephalanthus, Corylus, Decodon, Diospyros, Equisetum, Hydrangea, Lindera, Nyssa, Rosa, Rudbeckia, Saururus, Toxicodendron, Triadenum, Verbesina, Vernonia, and Vitis.