{"id":3340,"date":"2019-05-15T00:14:28","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T07:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-991\/"},"modified":"2024-11-27T12:15:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T20:15:36","slug":"on-dodders","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/on-dodders\/","title":{"rendered":"on dodders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>While hiking on San Juan Island, I saw these strangely beautiful, fluorescent orange clumps of hair-like substance (plant? fungus? something from outer space??) interwoven through the succulent-looking marsh plants. Can you tell me what this is?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That weaving (or strangling!) habit you describe calls dodder to mind, and there is a native coastal salt marsh dodder in that area called <a href=\"https:\/\/burkeherbarium.org\/imagecollection\/taxon.php?Taxon=Cuscuta%20pacifica\"><em>Cuscuta pacifica<\/em><\/a>. Dodder is related to morning glories (the plant family Convolvulaceae). It is a rootless parasitic plant with nearly no chlorophyll and barely any leaves, and cannot photosynthesize on its own. It sustains itself by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stonebird\/8192975618\/in\/photostream\/\">twining around other flowering plants<\/a> and infiltrating their tissues with specialized branches on its stems, and coiling around them repeatedly as it grows. It may even be able to <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190304001821\/http:\/\/www.indefenseofplants.com:80\/blog\/2015\/9\/30\/a-dose-of-dodder\">&#8220;smell&#8221;<\/a> potential host plants.<\/p>\n<p>Dodder can weaken its host plants, rendering them vulnerable to disease. However, there is some evidence that by thinning out the dominant host plants in a given area, it makes room for other species to take hold, increasing diversity.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board lists a non-native species (<em>Cuscuta approximata<\/em>, smoothseed alfalfa dodder) as a Class C noxious weed, but it is not found in the area where you were. It is mainly a problem in agricultural land east of the Cascades. Dodder has various unfriendly nicknames in farming land: Devil&#8217;s Guts, Witches&#8217; Shoelaces, Strangleweed, to list a few.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While hiking on San Juan Island, I saw these strangely beautiful, fluorescent orange clumps of hair-like substance (plant? fungus? something from outer space??) interwoven through the succulent-looking marsh plants. Can you tell me what this is? &nbsp; That weaving (or strangling!) habit you describe calls dodder to mind, and there is a native coastal salt marsh dodder in that area called Cuscuta pacifica. Dodder is related to morning glories (the plant family Convolvulaceae). It is a rootless parasitic plant with&#8230;<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/on-dodders\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">on dodders<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[906],"class_list":["post-3340","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-cuscuta"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/3340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=3340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}