DODDER 



Cuscuta species 



Summer Dodder is one of the strange parasitic plants which are 



Bottomlands ])art of the Illinois flora. Dodder starts out as a plant 

 witli roots in the soil, M'here the small seeds have germi- 

 nated, but as tlie thready yellow, orange, or red stems reach up and twine 

 around a nearl^y jjlant, the roots shrivel and the plant loses all contact 

 with the soil. The dodder derives nourishment fi'cm the juices of the 

 host plant, which the parasite obtains by means of suckers attached to 

 the plant at numerous points of contact. The ultimate fate of the host 

 plant usually is death, but it usually lasts long enough for the dodder 

 to nourish itself throughout the summer and blossom out in quantities 

 of tiny yello^\• orange flo\\-ers produced in masses along the thready stems. 

 It is a strange plant, the dodder. It belongs to the Bindweed 

 family, along with the morniiig glories and bindweeds, all of which have 

 proper leaves and roots set in the gTOund. But something happens to the 

 dodder after it starts to grow and it never has any leaves or gTeen coloring 

 matter to assist in the manufacture of its own iood. All it needs, there- 

 fore, are the tightly twining stems which grow by dozens like eager worms 

 around all the plants in the immediate vicinity until the dodder plants 

 make a bright orange mat against the greenery of the summer. Dodder 

 makes seeds, as other plants do, and these fall to the ground to germinate. 



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