[Trin. idem (Winder p.c.); probably from its use in an infusion "against sex weakness" (Higgs 1978: 14), but cf. US dial. South "love-wine: a yellowish, threadlike, twining parasitic plant, the dodder. So called because of he custom among young people of plucking a section of the vine and, after naming it and circling it over the head three times, throwing it on another bush. If it grows, the person after whom it is named loves the one who throws it" WEA]

n. a parasitic vine, Cuscuta americana, which covers and destroys shrubs: 1889 (Gardner 394). 1918 Love wine [vine] (Parsons 147). (Gen.)