PARASITES— DODDER. 



Clover Dodder. 



(Cuscuta trifolii.) 



This is a genus of leafless annual plants allied to 

 the bind-weeds, and like them strangling the plants 

 they lay hold of. 



A Dodder plant maintains its existence by twining 

 round other plants, into whose stems it inserts its 

 suckers and destroys the plants by appropriating to 

 itself the sap. The seed of the Dodder on being 



A Clover Plant attacked by Dodder. 



sown with the crop comes up at first an independent 

 plant; but, when it seizes a plant and sends its 

 suckers into the stem thereof, it lets go its hold of 

 the ground and lives thenceforth as a parasite. In 

 appearance it resembles a number of fleshy threads 

 twisted round a branch. One writer describes it as 

 appearing like a large mass of yellow horse-hair 



