DODDER 105 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



195. Erica cinerea, L. Shrub, bushy, stem wiry, upright, branched, 

 leaves 3 in a whorl, keeled below with glabrous furrows, flowers crim- 

 son in dense whorls, raceme irregular, ovate, ovary glabrous. 



Dodder (Cuscuta europsea, L.) 



A parasite and sporadic in its occurrence, this curious form of plant 

 life has left no trace of its occurrence in ancient deposits. Its present 

 distribution in the North Temperate Zone is Europe, N. Africa, and 

 Siberia. In Great Britain it is found in S. Devon, Somerset, N. Wilts, 

 Dorset, the Isle of Wight, N. Hants, Sussex, the Thames province 

 except E. Kent, Middlesex, Anglia, E. Gloucs, Worcester, Warwick, 

 Leicester, Chester, Westmorland. 



Dodder is a parasitic plant which grows on nettles and vetches and 

 other plants, and is as a rule found on heaths and commons, being 

 frequently found upon Furze. But its occurrence is extremely sporadic, 

 and it cannot be said to be common anywhere, though it is more 

 especially characteristic of ericetal tracts in the south of England. 



Interesting in its mode of subsistence, aerial, and not issuing from 

 the ground, adhering to the upper parts of other plants, from which it 

 draws its support, as in the case of Bartsia, Euphras'ia, Orobanche, &c., 

 it is also remarkable in not turning like most climbing plants from right 

 to left with the sun. If planted in earth it will not grow. 



The seeds after falling on the ground germinate in the soil, develop 

 a slender root and a thread-like stem. There are no cotyledons. By 

 the aid of the twining habit or circumnutation it later twines itself upon 

 a furze stem, which forms its host, and tendril-like twines round it. 

 Suckers are developed, and these bore into the woody layers of the 

 stem of the host plant, and henceforward serve as the organs of absorp- 

 tion. The root no longer necessary dies, and the plant is therefore 

 now a true parasite. The stems are thread-like, reddish, branched, 

 leafless, twining. 



The flowers are white, streaked with red, clustered, stalkless, with 

 an erect calyx, shorter than the corolla, with spreading, blunt segments, 

 fleshy at the base. At first cylindric the tube of the corolla, which 

 equals the short, broad lobes, is spreading and swollen, with closely- 

 pressed scales within. The seed does not open by lobes, but the 

 embryo is spirally coiled. 



The plant grows to a length of 2 ft. It flowers in August and 

 September, and is annual. 



