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Cuscuta campestris
Also called Yellow Dodder, Common Dodder, Dodder, Golden Dodder, Prairie Dodder, Western Field Dodder, Fiveangled Dodder
Field dodder is a leafless, yellow threadlike parasitic plant that wraps around and drains nutrients from herbaceous hosts such as alfalfa and other legumes. It cannot be grown as a garden plant and is treated as a weed or pest.
Cuscuta campestris, with the common names field dodder, golden dodder, large-seeded alfalfa dodder, yellow dodder and prairie dodder, is a parasitic plant which belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. It was formerly classified in the family Cuscutaceae.
It is native to central North America. It is a parasite of a wide range of herbaceous plants.
The native range of this species is unclear but thought to be North America, specifically Canada, US, and Mexico. It is also found in parts of the Caribbean, including Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica, Martinique, and possibly parts of South America. It is widely naturalised in parts of coastal and subcoastal regions of Australia, found predominantly in the Southeastern Australia along the Murray River. Cuscuta campestris can be found growing in grasslands, open woodlands, gardens, riparian zones, and wetlands. Cuscuta campestris has a tolerance for a wide range of climatic conditions, from warm temperate regions to subtropical or tropical regions.
Alfalfa dodder · Cuscuta monogyna · Large Saltmarsh Dodder · Fiveangled dodder · Saltmarsh dodder · Kauna'oa · Dodder
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cuscuta campestris 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.
