A scene from a horror film: an orange thread-like stem appears out of the ground and circles counter-clockwise while searching for potential victims by scent*. It wraps itself around a vulnerable, unsuspecting plant and penetrates its stem to suck up water and nutrients. This nightmare is known as Field swamp dodder ( Cuscuta Campestris gronovii )**. It’s one of the most creepy native plants I have ever seen!

Look at the orange stems reaching out to find its next victim.

It has no leaves. It has no roots. It does not have chlorophyll. It is a parasite that weakens its host by reducing flowering, fruiting, and making the plant more susceptible to viral diseases. Once it has penetrated its victim it will send out new stems to search for more victims. In just four months, one seed can produce 720 metres of stem! Witches Hair is the other name for dense, multi-branched and matted vines.

Doesn’t this look like witches’ hair? Scot Nelson Photo credit

Imagine my shock when I discovered this around my only cardinal, which was wrapped in the old pond.

I was scared.
Dodder can only be eradicated by pulling up the host plant. I didn’t like to remove my plant. precious cardinal flowerI then cut the plant off at its base, hoping that would be enough. I pulled up any other plants that were in the stranglehold of dodder. I found very little of this plant, which is supposed to be a real nightmare. This was not very reassuring as I didn’t know if I had just missed it or if I’d caught it too early. I’ll need to return to the area to see if there are any more.

It’s always best to remove the host plant before the dodder goes to seed. You can see the flowers as well as developing seed capsules. Click to enlarge.

Dodder produces a large amount of seeds. Once seed is wet it becomes sticky and can easily be spread by birds, animals and machinery. It can reduce agricultural yields if it invades a field. Many species of dodder are harmful to crops and are not native. Our native dodder, however, is Many countries consider invasive species to be a serious problem .

Yes, it’s creepy.

Halloween creepy. These photos were taken in August but I thought they would be perfect for October. Wildflower Wednesday .

It grows towards volatile chemicals released from the host plant. (Don’t you believe me? Click here to read. Smelling is the process of using our noses to detect volatile chemicals. Dodder is able to find its victims through smell even though it does not have a nasal organ.

**After writing this post, it became apparent that I had misidentified species. As the Connecticut Botanical Society notes, “Dodder species differ by small differences in their flower structures”, so it was a simple mistake. Minnesota Wildflowers also notes that “C. It appears that gronovii is not the pest some other species can be.