Scientific American Supplement, No. 430, March 29, 1884

Excerpt

THE DODDER.

The genus Cuscuta contains quite a number of species which go under the common name of dodder, and which have the peculiarily of living as parasites upon other plants. Their habits are unfortunately too well known to cultivators, who justly dread their incursions among cultivated plants like flax, hops, etc.

All parasitic plants, or at least the majority of them, have one character in common which distinguishes them at first sight. In many cases green matter is wanting in their tissues or is hidden by a livid tint that strikes the observer. Such are the Orobanchaccæ, or "broomropes," and the tropical Balanophoraceæ. Nevertheless, other parasites, such as the mistletoe, have perfectly green leaves.

However this may be, the naturalist's attention is attracted every time he finds a plant deprived of chlorophyl, and one in which the leaves seem to be wanting, as in the dodder that occupies us. In fact, as the majority of parasites take their nourishment at the expense of the plants upon which they fasten themselves, they have no need, as a general thing, of elaborating through their foliar organs the materials that their hosts derive from the air; in a word, they do not breathe actively like the latter, since they find the elements of their nutrition already prepared in the sap of their nurses. The dodders, then, are essentially parasites, and their apparent simplicity gives them a very peculiar aspect. Their leaves are wholly wanting, or are indicated by small, imperceptible scales, and their organs of vegetation are reduced to a stem and filiform branches that have obtained for them the names of Cheveux de Venus (Venus' Hair) and Cheveux du Diable (devil's hair) in French, and gold thread in English. Because of their destructive nature they have likewise been called by the unpoetic name of hellweed; and, for the reason that they embrace their host plants so closely, they have been called love weed and love vine.

When a seed of Cuscuta, germinates, no cotyledons are to be distinguished. This peculiarity, however, the plant has in common with other parasites, and even with some plants, such as orchids, that vegetate normally. The radicle of the dodder fixes itself in the earth, and the little stem rises as in other dicotyledons; but soon (for the plantlet could not live long thus) this stem, which is as slender as a thread, seeks support upon some neighboring plant, and produces upon its surfaces of contact one or more little protuberances that shortly afterward adhere firmly to the support and take on the appearance and functions of cupping glasses. At this point there forms a prolongation of the tissue of the dodder—a sort of cone, which penetrates the stalk of the host plant. After this, through the increase of the stem and branches of the parasite, the supporting plant becomes interlaced on every side, and, if it does not die from the embraces of its enemy, its existence is notably hazarded. It is possible for a Cuscuta plant to work destruction over a space two meters in diameter in a lucern or clover field; so, should a hundred seeds germinate in an acre, it may be easily seen how disastrous the effects of the scourge would prove....