Cassytha melantha
Cassytha melantha
Safety & Hazards
None known
Cultivation Details
A parasitic plant, Cassytha strongly favours Eucalyptus species as a host. If a seedling finds a suitable host, the Cassytha will begin climbing into it, attaching itself to the host and drawing nutrients from it. The portion of the plant that initially germinated and grew from the ground will then die off to leave the Cassytha totally dependant upon the host for food. A very robust species, it can often extensively and densely drape over (and sometimes smother) shrubs and trees[1]. The flowers produce an amazing perfume when you get to within 2 metres of them, which attracts small flying insects like flies, etc, to pollinate them.
Propagation
Seed - Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Cassytha+melantha>
Pollinators
Insects
References
- [1]VicFlora - Flora of Victoria — https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/ ↩︎An om-line flora for the state of Victoria, Australia.
- [2]Flora of Tasmania Online — Duretto MF (Ed.) · Tasmanian Herbarium, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery: Hobart · 2009 · http://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/floratasmania ↩︎An excellent flora, in the process of being published (58 family treatments as of 2017). It can be accesed online and can also be downloaded as PDFs.
- [3]Useful Fiber Plants of the World — Dodge C.R. · USDA; Washington. · 1897 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ ↩︎A rather dated, but very comprehensive catalogue of fibre plants from around the world. The book can be downloaded from the Internet.