Cuscuta brachycalyx

San joaquin dodder

Family: Convolvulaceae · Type: perennial · Native

San joaquin dodder is a California native parasitic perennial found in the California Floristic Province in chaparral, grassland, yellow-pine, and red-fir forests at elevations generally below 2,500 meters. Flowering from April to September, this plant produces small flowers arranged in panicle-like clusters with 1 to 9 flowers, each approximately 4.5 to 6 millimeters long. Growing as a threadlike parasitic vine that attaches to host plants, it lacks typical stems and leaves, instead existing as delicate yellow to orange stringlike structures. Its tiny flowers have bell-shaped calyxes with triangular-ovate lobes and narrow bell-shaped corollas with erect triangular-lanceolate lobes that become reflexed with age. The plant produces small spheric to obovoid fruits containing 2 to 4 seeds, each about 1 millimeter wide.

Habitat: On herbs, chaparral, grassland, yellow-pine, red-fir forests

Bloom period: Apr-Sep

Elevation: generally < 2500 m

Bioregions: CA-FP

California counties: Santa Clara, Trinity, Tulare, Merced, Placer, Riverside, Yolo, El Dorado, Colusa, Sonoma, Butte, Napa

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.