California Dodder

Dodder species are leafless orange parasites. Fortunately, they are a native species that have evolved with and adapted to their host species. Like any good parasite, California dodder rarely kills its host. California dodder is a parasitic, herbaceous annual plant that resembles fine strands of orange-brown spaghetti strewn across and within species in the coastal sage scrub. As a parasite, it lacks a root with which to take up water and nutrients from the soil, and chlorophyll with which to turn light and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates. The mature dodder plant obtains all of its food and water from the “host” plant. One dodder plant can completely engulf its host plant. In fact, a single dodder can infect more than one host at the same time. In spite of this, it is unusual for the native dodder to kill its native host. Dodder species have been given an assortment of fanciful names: witch’s hair, love-vine, strangle-weed, devil’s hair, golden thread, devils sewing thread, hell-bind.