Cuscuta cephalanthi

Buttonbush dodder

Family: Convolvulaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Buttonbush dodder is a California native parasitic perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range, and Warner Mountains on herbs and woody plants near streams, rivers, and lakes at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from June to October, this plant produces small white to cream-colored flowers in spike-like clusters with 3 to 18 flowers, each flower approximately 2 to 3 millimeters long. Growing as a vine-like parasite that attaches to host plants, it has slender, thread-like stems that lack chlorophyll and wrap around host vegetation. Its flowers feature a delicate membranous calyx with oblong-ovate lobes and a narrow bell-shaped corolla tube with rounded, sparsely fringed scales. The fruit is a small, depressed-spheric capsule 2.5 to 3.2 millimeters wide, containing two to three widely ovate seeds.

Habitat: On herbs, woody pls, near streams, rivers, lakes

Bloom period: Jun-Oct

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: KR, CaR, Wrn

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