Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Cassytha melantha
Common name
Coarse dodder-laurel
Family
Lauraceae
Where found
Dry forest and woodland. Widespread but not coastal.
Notes
Perennial parasitic twiner to 4 m high. Fruit fleshy. Stems hairy, becoming hairless. Leaves reduced to stem clasping scales 1-2 mm long. Flowers 2-3 mm long, 1.3-3 mm wide, greenish to reddish brown or black outside, creamy white inside, with 3 petals, in clusters of 1-13 flowers. Flowers most of the year. Fruit globular, hairy becoming hairless, cream or green to brown, drying black, enveloped in the enlarged floral tube.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Cassytha~melantha (accessed 7 January, 2021)
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