MORNING GLORY FAMILY 



CONVOLVULACE^E MORNING GLORY FAMILY 



Cuscuta Gronovii, Willd. 



Dull white Wild Dodder, Love-vine, 



Onion Dodder, Scald Weed, 



July- August Gronovius' Dodder, Devil* s-gut. 



Cuscuta: name supposed to be of Arabic derivation. 

 Gronovii: name in honour of Gronovius. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: other plants. 



THE PLANT: high, climbing; the stems yellow to orange, 

 slender but coarse. 



THE LEAVES : none; the stem " bearing a few, minute scales 

 in place of leaves." 



THE FLOWERS: numerous, in dense cymes. The corolla 

 bell-shaped, very small. 



THE FRUIT: a capsule. 



A pernicious parasite that attaches itself to plants 

 and grows by inserting its aerial roots into their stems 

 and branches. It has inconspicuous tiny flowers, but 

 fortunately bright-coloured stems, which loudly proclaim 

 the presence of the criminal. 



One writer when speaking of Dodder says: 

 "Owing to the serious nature of the attack upon our 

 flax crops Professor Buckman was induced to experiment 

 years ago with the object of elucidating its mode of growth. 

 He found that the seeds of Dodder, sown strictly apart 

 from any host-plants, germinated in four days and on the 

 sixth a thread-like plant was seeking a foster parent, but 

 by the eighth, not having succeeded in its object, it died. 

 Others were sown in company with flax-seed, and in a few 

 days the young Dodders attached themselves to the 

 young Flax plants, made one or two tight coils around the 

 victims, whose growth soon lifted the Dodders right out 



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