Cuscuta indecora var. indecora

Large-seeded dodder, Large-Seeded Dodder

Family: Convolvulaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Large-seeded dodder is a California native perennial parasitic plant found in northern coastal, northwestern coastal, Sierra Nevada, Great Valley, and Desert bioregions in moist fields and roadsides at elevations generally below 1,500 meters. Flowering from June to November, this plant produces small, fleshy flowers with triangular-ovate lobes in raceme- or panicle-like clusters of 5 to 40 blossoms. Growing as a thin, twining parasitic vine that attaches to host plants with specialized suckers, it lacks typical leaves and instead wraps itself around other vegetation. Its flowers are distinctive, with bell-shaped corollas 2 to 5.3 millimeters long featuring spoon-shaped scales and triangular-ovate lobes that are nearly erect. The plant produces spheric fruits 2 to 3.5 millimeters wide that are translucent and surrounded by the dried corolla, containing 2 to 4 widely elliptic seeds.

Habitat: Common. On herbs, woody pls, often in moist fields, roadsides

Bloom period: Jun-Nov

Elevation: generally < 1500 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoR, SN, GV, D

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