''Cassytha filiformis'' or love-vine is an orangish, wiry,

parasitic Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The ent ...

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

in the family

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant Family (biology), family that includes the bay laurel, true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genus (biology), genera worldwide. They are dicotyled ...

. It is found in coastal forests of warm

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

regions worldwide including the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

Indomalaya The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

and tropical

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. It is an obligate parasite, meaning it cannot complete its life-cycle without another host plant. Research in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

(in southeast United States) has found that love-vine inhibits gall wasps by attacking the galls (small growths on plants) that the wasps create for their young.

Description

Vines

''Cassytha filiformis'' is a twining vine with yellow or orange to pale green hollow stems with a length between 3–8 metres long. The stems attach to host plants by growing shoots from the base of its root, they have haustoria that fold inside the hosts' phloem and xylem membranes to absorb water and nutrients. The young shoots are slightly thicker and slightly darker than the unrelated

dodder ''Cuscuta'' (), commonly known as dodder or amarbel, is a genus of over 201 species of yellow, orange, or red (rarely green) parasitic plants. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, it now is accepted as belonging in the ...

. but otherwise remarkably similar. File:Cassytha filimoris 1.jpg, Clump of ''C. filiformis'' on Florida Rosemary,

southwest Florida Southwest Florida is the region along the southwest Gulf coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is known for its beaches, subtropical landscape, and winter resort economy. Definitions of the region vary, though its boundaries are genera ...

. File:Starr 031108-0293 Cassytha filiformis.jpg, ''C. filiformis'' covering a tree,
Caspersen Beach, west Florida Leaves are reduced to scales about 1 mm long and can be seen near stem ends.

Flowers and fruit

Flowers are borne in spikes 1–2 cm long from short stalks or sometimes solitary. There are six curved inward

tepals A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of ve ...

made of 3 outer oval ones 1 mm long and three inner ones 2.5 mm long. Each one has smooth (glabrous) and broad stamens with short pointy ends forming into a beak shape. File:Dodder flowers.jpg, ''C. filiformis'' flowers File:Starr 010520-0082 Cassytha filiformis.jpg, ''C. filiformis'' fruit, Hawaii Fruit is a round and green or whitish

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

about 7 mm in diameter. Its juicy flesh is eaten and dispersed by birds.

Uses and relationship with humans

In the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

, the stems are dried and powdered to make a liquid substance to stimulate hair growth. Pregnant women in Polynesia drink juice from the vines for 4 weeks before their babies' due date to reduce pains giving birth. In the Caribbean region, it is one of several plants known as "love vine" because it has a reputation as an

aphrodisiac An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases libido, sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. These substances range from a variety of plants, spices, and foods to synthetic chemicals. Natural aphrodisiacs, such as ...

. 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?)".

Gall wasps

A 2018 study revealed how a southern Florida subspecies of this widespread species is involved in a newly discovered form of trophic interaction involving gall-forming cynipid wasps. New tendrils will actively seek out galls made by the gall wasp, '' Belonocnema treatae'', on leaves of a host oak tree, '' Quercus geminata''. The findings show that galls attacked by haustoria were associated with a 45% less survival rate for the wasps, suggesting that ''C. filiformis'' has an important negative impact on gall wasp survival. In the study, other species of plant and wasp galls are parasitised by this plant in the southern Florida area too.

References

External links

Love Vine
at Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, University of Florida * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2941329 filiformis Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Pantropical flora Parasitic plants Flora of Australia Flora of Florida Flora of Texas Flora of Southern America Flora of Mexico Flora of China Flora of Japan Flora of Madagascar Flora of South Africa Flora of tropical Asia Flora of the Lesser Sunda Islands Flora of Hawaii