Cuscuta salina Engelm. var. major Yunker   Cuscutaceae (Dodder Family)   Native Dodder Salicornia Dodder Marsh Dodder

                                          June Photo

Plant Characteristics: Annual, parasitic plant without chlorophyll; annual with slender, orange, stems; fls. 2-3 mm. long,  on mostly shorter pedicels, in umbellate-cymose clusters; calyx-lobes lance-ovate, ca. as long as corolla-tube; corolla-lobes ca. as long as subcampanulate tube, lance-ovate, erect or spreading, +/- overlapping; scales attached to corolla-tube most of their length, oblong, narrow, shorter than tube, fringed; fils. not longer than anthers; anthers oval; styles not longer than ovary; seeds ca. 1.5 mm. long, round-ovoid.

Habitat:  On Salicornia, Cressa, etc., in saline places at fairly low elevs.; to B.C., Utah, Ariz. Below +/- 100 m.  May-Sept.

Name:  The name Cuscuta is of Arabic derivation meaning "dodder". (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 378).  Latin, salis, salt.  (Jaeger 226).  The species name may refer to the habitat of the plant or to the fact that it has a high salt content.  (my comment).  Major, larger. (Dale 152).

General:  Occasional in the study area.  Photographed on the North Star Flats.  (my comments).      The several species of Cuscuta are best identified by their host plants.  The four species found in the Santa Monica Mountains can be found on Sage, Buckwheat, Deerweed and Haplopappus, Ceanothus, Cocklebur, and Pickleweed.   The absence of any green shows it is a true parasite.  (Dale 101).      Dodder, Cuscuta, spp. makes a handsome dye for feathers.  (Murphy 54).      Dodder seeds germinate in the ground and the young plant is at first dependent upon food stored within the seed.  A slender, yellowish, leafless stem is sent out, which will coil about any suitable support.  Very soon, wart-like suckers appear along the stem and these penetrate the tissues of the plant on which the dodder is preying.  If the young seedling does not encounter a suitable host it withers and dies.  As dodder grows older, it branches and rebranches, spreading from plant to plant.  The older branches may die if the stems upon which they are fastened are used up, but new branches are continually formed.  Dodder is difficult to eradicate from alfalfa fields.  Dodder, infesting clover, has been reported to cause bowel trouble in horses and scours in cattle.  Hay does not cure properly when dodder is present.  Dodder seeds retain their vitality for at least 5 years; some may germinate the same season they mature while others rest over.  (Robbins et al. 347,348).      One of the native halophytes listed as occurring in Upper Newport Bay.  (Zedler 16).  (See Spartina foliosa for a complete list of the native halophytes.      An obligate parasite, Cuscuta salina, occurs in southern California marshes, covering a number of hosts with bright orange stems and small white flowers.  It can be very dense, but the effect on the host plants does not seem to be severe.  It is an annual plant whose dispersal and establishment characteristics are unstudied. (Zedler 30).      This plant has one of the highest salt contents of any plant.  (ref. not recorded).           Delfina Cuero, A Kumeyaay or Southern Diegueno Indian, made the following comment about Cuscuta salina in her autobiography:  "The name Haakwal pehaa means 'lizard guts'. I don't know any use."  (Shipek 88).        A rounded teaspoon of the chopped plant is a good laxative-cathartic and smaller quantities, drunk every few hours, will aid in reducing spleen inflammations, lymph node swellings, and "liver torpor."  Dodder is used by the Chinese for treating impotence.  (Moore, Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West 70).         Popularly known as love vine because of its clinging habit, the plant deserves no such accolade.  It might better be called the octopus of the plant world with its wart-like suckers that draw the life-blood from its victims.  (Parsons 164).      Parsons book was published in 1909. (my comment).          About 100 species of wide distribution.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 376).       Formerly in Convolvulaceae.  (Hickman, Ed. 539).       Roberts includes this species in Convolvulaceae in both his first and second edition of A checklist of the Vascular Plants of Orange County, California.  (my comment).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 539; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 378; Robbins et al. 351; Roberts 20.

Photo Ref:  Dec 2 82 # 30,31; May 5 83 # 15; June 06 #6A.

Identity: by R. De Ruff.  

First Found:  December 1982.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 233.

No plant specimen.

Last edit 6/15/06.