Anyone any idea? I found it quite curious because of the long winding orange shoots on top..
I photographed it in Paraty town, Brazil.

Those long winding shoots may be Cassytha filiformis, a parasitic plant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

http://www.parasiticplants.siu...

https://www.google.com/images?...

A Cuscuta species (Dodder) is another possibility for the orange plant but you'd need a close-up of the flowers to tell. Both plants look pretty similar and have small white flowers. They both give me the creeps...shudder...

Thank you Dave Paul and Danita!

When I first looked at Cassytha filiformis it really looks like a match to me, but I am unsure now looking at some of the Cuscuta species, they do look very similar indeed. Maybe I just don't have enough other elements of the plant.
I think the shrub was blooming, but I took the shots in a hurry as I wasn't alone and cannot expect from anyone to wait for me at every step I see a plant to photograph!

Those small white flowers are blooming on the orange, parasitic plant. If it was a really high-resolution photo you might be able to zoom in on them a bit and crop. The flowers are the key to telling the difference.

Some people just don't understand what's really important....plants, of course!

BTW, I've enjoyed seeing all of your unusual plant photos from Brazil.

Cassytha filiformis is in the location, although the shrub it was growing on might not be native the parasite is.

http://reflora.jbrj.gov.br/jab...

There's a long list of Cuscuta species, I haven't gone through them to check for location!

http://reflora.jbrj.gov.br/jab...

I'm wondering if the shrubs are a citrus, they can look yellow if lacking nutrients and those shrubs look to have been cut back a lot. I've tried growing several types from seed, all lost now, one was years ago from a fruit which was a mandarin cross grown in Brazil which was called something like Mandora, that got big very quickly and had outgrown it's large pot so started to suffer, it also got covered in scale insects so I left it outside to the elements.

http://aromasvitais.blogspot.c...

Look at the similarity of Citrus aurantium ..

http://www.public.asu.edu/~cam...

It would have trouble flowering with being cut back so much, the flowers you can see look like they belong to the vine.

Thank you Danita, here is a crop where you can have an idea of the flowers, and I think it is Cassytha filiformis.
I really thought that the shrub itself was making them, that's why I found it so weird, but the vine on itself is weird enough not having leaves!


I don't think it is a Citrus plant Janet, I also took a crop of the leaves, the margins are lightly toothed.
The shrub actually looked healthy to me, maybe it is a cultivar of some sort.
A pity you lost your Mandora tree!

I can see the toothed leaf margins now Myriam, now to come up with something it could be! That might be a difficult one.

The 'Mandora' tree was also a target for vine weevils, the roots were plentiful and even pot bound in a very big pot but it was too good a place for vine weevils to breed. The tree was reaching the roof of the greenhouse too, I think they take 15 years from seed to produce although I had already had a couple of flowers on it. I'm wishing I could have kept it as it survived in the greenhouse, it's years now since I left it outside to be ravished by the elements.

You probably could not have kept it anyway Janet as it was already reaching the roof, I can imagine the tree being much bigger after 15 years!

I've been all over looking for this, the leaves look to be evergreen and they still look like citrus to me. So, I searched for 'citrus with serrate leaves' and found one.

http://www.mygarden.net.au/com...

It looks like those flowers have 5 petals to me which would make them Cuscuta (Dodder.) Cassytha have 3 petals and 3 sepals.

http://treasurecoastnatives.wo...

The plants really are weird looking and bring to mind the old spaghetti-tree hoax:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...


I wonder if the host shrub could be some sort of Duranta. I've read that it's "the boxwood of the topics." Something like Duranta repens 'Sheena's Gold' or similar, perhaps?

Thanks for the tip, by the way!

I learned a lesson Janet, it is not because I never saw a Citrus with toothed leaves, it means it doesn't exist!
You found one anyway!

I believe Danita you have hit the nail, Duranta repens 'Sheena's Gold' looks like a perfect match to me!
In some of the photos on the web I see the slightly toothed leaves.
Thanks for pointing out that Cuscuta has 5 flower petals while Cassytha has only 3!

So Cuscuta mine will be!

That looks good! More info, it's native to Brazil ...

http://keyserver.lucidcentral....

Duranta isn't a shrub we are familiar with in this climate!

Glad you learnt a lesson today Myriam.

Yes!

Danita has the flower down!

Thanks for that link Janet, that is very good info, the shrub must be very attractive in bloom and fruit! The berries are probably much appreciated by the birds too.