Dodder is a leafless, delicate, yellow colored total stem parasite belonging to the plant family Convolvulaceae. It is seen entangled on shrubs and hedges along the roads and railway tracks. The tiny white flowers appear in bunches. The fruits are pea shaped and the seeds are black in color. Although it can grow out of seeds, when it finds a suitable host plant, it loses its connection with the soil and becomes totally parasitic in nature, living on and absorbing the nutrients from the host plant. Dodder can be recognized even by the smell of the flowers, these possess a penetrating sweet perfume like smell that is particularly strong in the cool evening air. Dodder requires a suitable host species to survive. Hosts include a wide range of broadleaf weeds, lucerne and some vegetables. Many weed species and tree seedlings are also suitable hosts, allowing dodder to build up in areas where weeds are not controlled due to difficult access.
| Name | Dodder |
|---|---|
| Scientific Name | Cuscuta |
| Native | East Asia, the plant is grown in China. |
| Common/English Name | Devil’s Guts, Dodder, Hellweed, Love Vine, devil’s gut, beggar weed, strangle tare, scald weed, dodder of thyme, greater dodder, and lesser dodder. |
| Folk Names | Strangle tare, scaldweed, beggarweed, lady’s laces, fireweed, wizard’s net, devil’s guts, devil’s hair, devil’s ringlet, goldthread, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, love vine, pull-down, strangleweed, angel hair, and witch’s hair. |
| Name in Other Languages | Tamil : Verillakothan English : Dodder Plant Portuguese: Cipó-de-chumbo Hindi : Amarabel Spanish: Fideo French: Cuscute de champs Sanscrit : Akasavalli Maori (Cook Islands): Tia‘ea Punjabi : Zarbut Rotuman: Luorovaka Urdu : Akashbel Fijian: Navereverelangi Bengali : Akashbel Chinese: Tu si zi. Malayalam : Moodillathali |
| Plant Growth Habit | Parasitic annual Plant |
| Growing Climate | Grows in a wide range of environmental conditions and on a wide variety of host plants including crops, sown pastures, vegetable, weeds and some tree species. |
| Stem | Bright yellow (golden) to green, often completely without chlorophyll. They are smooth, hairless, thread-like about 1 mm thick and branched, twining tightly on host plants. They attach by small suckers which penetrate the stems and leaves of the host plant. |
| Leaf | Can be leafless or have small, scale like, triangular leaves about 1/16 inch long. |
| Flower | Bell-shaped flowers are cream colored and have 3–5 petals and about 1/8 inch long; and 3-4 mm in diameter. They usually occur in clusters but occasionally are borne singly. Flowers range in color from white to pink to yellow to cream. They are formed in clusters along the stems between spring and autumn. |
| Fruit | Globular capsules 3–4 mm in diameter containing up to 4 seeds. |
| Seed | Seeds are minute and produced in large quantities and contains rough coats and vary in size depending on species. Seeds are brown, yellow or grey and 1–2 mm in diameter. The seeds are slightly pear-shaped and similar in size to clover and lucerne seed. |
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