DON'T DODDER

I had assumed the bright orange strings were left over from some secret ranch process like haying.  I was dumbfounded to be told that it was a plant!  My mind was racing with questions. “Excuse me, where are the leaves?  Why isn’t it green like a plant?”  Really, my ego didn’t want to admit that the orange string was alive.  As it turns out, dodder is a parasitic plant (Cuscate species) which explains the lack of leaves and green color.  Dodder is produced by seeds each year (an annual).  The seeds germinate, and the dodder can live on its own for 5-10 days.  I am presuming this is all the energy the seed has packaged up and that it dies when it runs out of energy.  (I mean really, if it was green it could photosynthesize.)  The young dodder can grow up to a foot tall in those early days.  But, it will die if it hasn’t found a suitable host.  If a suitable host plant is within that one foot “reach”.  Then the dodder sends haustoria.  These are little suckers that penetrate the host plant and suck out water, minerals and nutrients (found in phloem).  Once dodder grows on top of their host plant, they sever the connection to the soil and becomes a complete phloem sucker.   The best way to deal with dodder is to remove the plants before the go to seed.  Don’t dodder on that!