Cassytha capillaris
Meissner
Dodder laurel, Slender dodder
(c) Russell Cumming, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Russell Cumming
(c) Russell Cumming, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Fruit
The fruit are eaten raw when not bitter.
Known Hazards
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. The grow in dry, open, sandy hills. In tropical Queensland it grows from sea level to 600 m altitude. It can grow in arid places.
Asia, Australia, Indochina, Indonesia, Mariana Islands, Micronesia, Pacific, Palau, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Saipan, SE Asia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam,
How to Identify
A plant which keeps growing from year to year by living on other plants. It twines around plants and climbs. It can make some of its own food from carbon dioxide in the air. It attaches to plants by special processes with grow into the plant. The stems are green and become reddish brown when they dry out. They are 0.4-0.5 mm across. If leaves occur they are very small (1 mm) and triangular. Young plants can have hairs but they become hairless. The plant does not have leaves. The flower is a spike. The flowers are white and do not have a flower stalk. The flowers are round and the fruit are pearly pink. They become red when dry. The fruit are 4-6 mm by 3-4 mm. They can be oval or lobed. (It differs from Cassytha filiformis by having a slender almost hairless stem and fruit which are smaller, oval and becoming red when dry.)
Medicinal Uses
Cassytha is best known for its parasitic habit, and the various species are neither prominent as crop plants, nor as beneficial plants. Species within the genus do have minor uses in rural communities globally. For example, the fruit of various species are eaten, both by birds and by humans, and C. melantha in particular has been documented as a wild-harvested Australian indigenous food. The flesh of fruit is very sticky and chewy, and has a taste reminiscent of feijoa. In the Caribbean region, C. filiformis is one of the plant species known as love vine, because it has a reputation as an aphrodisiac. Plants in the genus contain low concentrations of several alkaloids that have not yet been shown to be of great value, but do have biochemical properties worthy of investigation. Together with the fragrant essential oils in some species, the alkaloids might be relevant to the wide application of Cassytha species in folk medicine and in traditional teas. Though they are not of commercial interest as fibre crops, suitably prepared vines from some Cassytha species are of value in rural communities as a source of cord. They may be used for binding bundles of materials such as thatch, or for stringing decorative festoons.
Production
In northern Australia plants flower and fruit from February to June.
Other Information
It is not known if they are used for food in Papua New Guinea.
Notes
There are 15-20 Cassytha species. Sometimes they are in the family Cassythaceae.
Names & Synonyms
References (6)
- Cooper, W. and Cooper, W., 2004, Fruits of the Australian Tropical Rainforest. Nokomis Editions, Victoria, Australia. p 245
- Kenneally, K.E., Edinger, D. C., and Willing T., 1996, Broome and Beyond, Plants and People of the Dampier Peninsula, Kimberley, Western Australia. Department of Conservation and Land Management. p 113
- Latz, P.K., 1996, Bushfires and Bushtucker: Aboriginal plant use in Central Australia. IAD Press Alice Springs p 144
- Paczkowska, G. & Chapman, A.R., 2000, The Western Australian Flora. A Descriptive Catalogue. Western Australian Herbarium. p 276
- Pham-Hoang Ho, 1999, An Illustrated Flora of Vietnam. Nha Xuat Ban Tre. p 402
- Wheeler, J.R.(ed.), 1992, Flora of the Kimberley Region. CALM, Western Australian Herbarium, p 60
