Dodder

I was not aware of dodder until a couple of years ago, while driving along a road that I’ve used every day for the past fifteen years. One summer I noticed something orange and stringy covering plants along the side of the road. I was curious, but I always forgot to look it up. At least a year went by, and I finally figured out what it was. If you have never seen it before, imagine taking orange/yellow silly string and spraying it all over some plants. That’s what it looks like driving by, but what does it look like up close? Recently I was able to bring some home, including the plant it was attached to, in order to photograph for this show.

I was doing a little research and it was really interesting how it grows. It’s actually a parasitic plant - after seed germination, it finds another plant to twine around or attach to. It then inserts modified roots into the host plant, getting all of its nutrients and water from it. It even gives up growing in the ground once it attaches itself to a host plant.

I don’t know if I will see this plant again until next summer. At this time, there is no noticeable orange silly string in the spot where I took my samples from so I feel fortunate to have taken the photos I did.