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Cuscuta approximata
Also called Smallseed Alfalfa Dodder, Clustered Dodder, Smooth Seed Alfalfa Dodder, Smoothseed Alfalfa Dodder
Alfalfa dodder is a leafless, yellow to orange-red parasitic vine that wraps around host plants and draws nutrients from them through haustoria. It is a weed rather than a garden plant, and the key to control is removing infected host material and seed before it spreads.
Cuscuta approximata is a species of dodder known by the common name alfalfa dodder. It is native to Eurasia and Africa, but it is also found in North America, where it is an introduced species and uncommon noxious weed. It is a parasitic vine which climbs other plants and takes nutrition directly from them via a haustorium. The dodder resembles a pile of light yellow to orange-red straw wrapped tightly around its host plant. It is mostly stem; the leaves are reduced to scales on the stem's surface, since they are not needed for photosynthesis while the dodder is obtaining nutrients from its host. It bears clusters of tiny yellowish bell-shaped flowers which are only about 3 millimeters wide. The dodder reproduces by seed, with each plant capable of producing over 10,000 seeds at once. This plant is a weed of alfalfa, clover, and tomatoes, as well as other crop plants and native flora.
Field dodder · Cuscuta monogyna · Large Saltmarsh Dodder · Fiveangled dodder · Saltmarsh dodder · Kauna'oa · Dodder
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cuscuta approximata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
