- dodder
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dodder1
—dodderer, n./dod"euhr/, v.i.to shake; tremble; totter.[1610-20; cf. DITHER, TOTTER, TEETER, etc.]dodder2/dod"euhr/, n.a leafless parasitic plant, Cuscuta gronovii, having dense clusters of small, white, bell-shaped flowers on orange-yellow stems that twine about clover or flax. Also called love vine.
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Any of the leafless, twining, parasitic vines (see parasitism) that make up the genus Cuscuta (family Cuscutaceae), containing more than 150 species found throughout temperate and tropical regions.The stringlike stems may be yellow, orange, pink, or brown. Many species have been introduced with their host plants into new areas. Dodders contain no chlorophyll, instead absorbing water and food through rootlike organs called haustoria that penetrate the tissue of a host plant and may kill it. Dodder can do great damage to crops of clover, alfalfa, flax, hops, and beans. The best control is to remove the plant from fields by hand and to prevent its accidental introduction.
Dodder (Cuscuta gronovii )Russ KinnePhoto Researchers* * *
▪ plant(genus Cuscuta), any leafless, twining, parasitic plant in the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae). The genus contains about 145 twining species that are widely distributed throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world. Many species have been introduced with their host plants into new areas.The dodder contains no chlorophyll and instead absorbs food through haustoria (haustorium); these are rootlike organs that penetrate the tissue of a host plant and may kill it. The slender, stringlike stems of the dodder may be yellow, orange, pink, or brown in colour. The dodder's flowers, in nodulelike clusters, are made up of tiny yellow or white bell-like, lobed corollas (united petals). Its leaves are reduced to minute scales.The dodder's seed germinates, forming an anchoring root, and then sends up a slender stem that grows in a spiral fashion until it reaches a host plant. It then twines around the stem of the host plant and throws out haustoria, which penetrate it. Water is drawn through the haustoria from the host plant's stem and xylem, and nutriments are drawn from its phloem. Meanwhile, the root of the dodder rots away after stem contact has been made with a host plant. As the dodder grows, it sends out new haustoria and establishes itself very firmly on the host plant. After growing in a few spirals around one host shoot, the dodder finds its way to another, and it continues to twine and branch until it resembles a fine, densely tangled web of thin stems enveloping the host plant.Dodder can do great damage to crops of clover, alfalfa, flax, hops, and beans. It is mainly controlled by the hand removal of the plants from fields and by preventing the plant's accidental introduction.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
