Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

ROPE DODDER

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Cuscuta glomerata Choisy

Riley County, Kansas

Annual/Perennial

Height: Twining or climbing on other plants

Family: Convolvulaceae - Morning Glory Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Also Called:

Cluster dodder.

Stems:

Slender vine, twining, 1/25 to 1/16 inch in diameter, glabrous, greenish-yellow, yellow or orange; often withered or absent by flowering.

Leaves:

Alternate, reduced to scales; appears leafless.

Inflorescences:

Clusters, dense, rope-like, winding around stem of host plant.

Flowers:

Flowers sessile, in 2 densely clustered parallel rows on opposite sides of stems, subtended by bracts; bracts numerous, overlapping, lanceolate; tips pointed, curved downward; calyx deeply divided; sepals 5, oblong-oval; tips blunt to pointed, spreading; corolla cylindrical, 1/6 to 1/5 inch long, 5-lobed, white or yellowish, fragrant; lobes pointed, spreading or curved backward; stamens shorter than corolla lobes.

Fruits:

Capsule, spherical with pointed tip or thickened collar, thus appearing flask-shaped; seeds 0-2, oval, about 1/15 inch long, brown.

Habitat:

Prairies, roadsides, stream banks, low areas, damp sites.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas

Origin:

Native

Reproduction:

Seeds

Comments:

Dodder is parasitic on the above ground portion of other plants. Rope dodder is often found growing on Asteraceae such as Helianthus and Solidago.

Rope dodder