Salt marsh dodder

[CUSCUTA SALINA]

From a distance it looks as if someone splashed a can of bright orange paint onto the salt marsh vegetation. But closer inspection reveals an odd, parasitic plant that is cursed with nicknames like devil’s guts or hellweed. Arising in late spring from a seed no larger than the period at the end of a sentence, dodder sends out not roots but a leafless tendril that snakes across the ground in search of something vertical. Twining vigorously around other hapless plants, dodder latches on with ferocious suckers that drain nutrients and water from the host’s tissues. Growing several inches a day, a single dodder soon becomes a dense mat of twisting tendrils up to 10 feet across. Specializing on marsh plants above the high-tide line, salt marsh dodder has minimal impact. But other species that can destroy entire fields of crops now cost California agriculture about $30 million a year.

NATURAL HISTORY

By June, dodder patches are conspicuous in salt marshes along the coast. Though they are hard to see, thousands of tiny bell-shaped flowers that produce two to three seeds cover each plant. These seeds can survive up to 30 years before germinating.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

No other plant is leafless; looks like a plate of spaghetti spilled on the ground.