DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 



213 



to provide for germination and for sufficient growth o f 

 stem to enable the plant to reach some other plant into 

 which it immediately sends its suckers and thus becomes 

 established upon its host from which it afterwards ob- 

 tains its nourishment Dodders contain no green color- 

 ing matter, or chlorophyll as it is called, so are unable to 

 assimilate raw material and make starch of it as green- 

 leaved plants do, hence are dependent upon other plants 

 for nourishment that has already been 

 converted. Such plants are called par- 

 asites. Dodder seeds retain their vital- 

 ity five years or more, hence must be 

 considered as especially pernicious 

 when present in commercial seeds. 



Clover Dodder (Cuscuta Epithymum, 

 Murr.). Slender, reddish stems; cap- 

 itate flowers with pink calyx, corolla 

 with four to five erect lobes ; scales large, 

 incurved ; stemless, exserted, filiform 

 stamens; capsule circumsessile with 

 withering corolla. Found in both 

 clover and alfalfa; native to Europe, 

 but now found in the United States 

 from New England to Iowa and South 

 Dakota, the Rocky Mountains and the 

 Pacific coast. The large seeded Chil- 

 can dodder (C. racemosa, var. chiliana) 

 is found in clover seed sent from Chili. 



Field Dodder (Cuscuta arvensis, Beyrich). Pale yel- 

 low, filiform stems ; flowers in small, nearly sessile clus- 

 ters ; calyx- of five obtuse lobes ; corolla nearly campanu- 

 late, five-lobed, longer than the tube, tips reflexed ; scales 

 large, ovate ; stamens not exserted ; style shorter than the 

 ovary; stigmas capitate; capsule globose, indehiscent. A 

 parasite on shrubs and various herbs as well as on clover 

 and alfalfa from New England to Florida, Canada to the 



Fig. 1363. Clover 

 alfalfa ' 



