| Devil's Twine | |
|---|---|
| Devil's Twine on a mallee, Mount Imlay National Park, Australia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Magnoliids |
| Order: | Laurales |
| Family: | Lauraceae |
| Genus: | Cassytha |
| Species: | C. pubescens |
| Binomial name | |
| Cassytha pubescens R.Br. |
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| Synonyms | |
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Cassytha pubescens the Devil's Twine is a common twining plant of the Laurel family, in southern and eastern Australia. A hemi-parasitic climber.[1]
An apparently leafless plant with warty stems when old. Stems are between a half and one and a half millimetres in diameter. Leaves are present in the form of tiny scales. The haustoria are 2 to 3 millimetres long.
Tiny flowers form in summer. Being hairy, stalk-less or nearly so, yellow or white. The fruit is round, ribbed and hairy, around 10 mm in diameter. The fruit are sweet and mucousy to taste.[2] In 1810, this species first appeared in scientific literature, in the Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae, authored by the prolific Scottish botanist, Robert Brown.