COMMON DODDER 



of other plants. In bright sunshine the color has 

 really a metallic glint. This is the Dodder, a degener- 

 ate, a thief, and a parasite. Long ago the Dodder 

 forsook the paths of industry and rectitude, and began 

 to reap where it had not sown and enjoy what it had 

 not earned. Somehow it found out that it was possi- 

 ble to send out little suckers to pene- 

 trate the bark of other plants, to reach 

 down to their sap-channels, and so to 

 live upon their juices. 



The plant is virtually leafless, a few 

 minute scales do duty for leaves, and 

 although its seeds germinate in the 

 ground, as soon as the young twining 

 stem gets a strangle-hold upon another 

 plant, it ceases to work for itself, its 

 root and lower part of stem wither 

 away, leaving the Dodder in midair, 

 as it were, but abundantly nourished 

 by the juices it finds in other plants. 

 Having no need of these organs, it 

 loses them and becomes a plant with- 

 out a root, without a leaf, mth a 

 stem incapable of bearing its own weight — a parasite 

 and a vampire. But it grows and waxes strong and 

 powerful, blooms abundantly, ripens many seeds, which 

 in the moist soil develop quickly, and so the plant ap- 

 pears in great masses and patches, a tangle of golden 

 threads bearing many groups of minute, bunched, white 

 flowers. 



Ceha Thaxter, in "An Island Garden," gives her 

 experience with Dodder. "They emerge from the 

 ground, each like a fine yellow hair, till they are an 



167 



Common Dodder in 

 fruit . 

 Cuscuta grondvii 



