CUSCUTACE^— DODDER FAMILY 



COMMON DODDER 



Cuscuta grondvii 



Name supposed to be of Arabic derivation. 



Annual. Native. A parasite, appearing as a mass 

 of bright yellow stems, twining about herbs and shrubs, 

 to which they adhere by means of suckers. Nova Scotia 

 to Manitoba, and south to the Gulf States. July-Sep- 

 tember. 



Stems. — Slender, leafless, often climbing high, varying 

 in color from yellow to orange. 



Leaves. — Represented by a few minute, yellow scales, 

 fringed. 



Flowers. — Small, clustered, cream-white, usually pro- 

 duced in late summer and in autumn. Variable in size 

 and compactness of clusters. 



Calyx. — Minute, five-cleft, greenish white. 



Corolla. — Small, white, bell-shaped, five-lob ed. 



Stamens. — Five, inserted on corolla-throat above a 

 scale. 



Pistil. — Ovary one; styles two. 



Fruit. — Globular capsule. 



One often sees in midsummer by the roadside or 

 in low, moist lands where there is a thicket of herbs 

 and bushes, and sometimes in the open, a tangle of 

 leafless, threadlike stems which look astonishingly like 

 a coil of copper wire, sometimes in mass and some- 

 times coiled and twisted about the stems and leaves 

 i66 



