Cuscuta japonica var. formosana

Japanese dodder

Family: Convolvulaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Japanese dodder is a naturalized parasitic plant found in the Santa Clara Valley, Central California Coast, and spreading to other areas, typically growing on woody plants at elevations below 100 meters. Flowering from September to November, this plant produces small, cream-white flowers in dense spike-like clusters with 1 to 3 flowers per cluster. Growing as a thin, thread-like vine that parasitizes other plants, it lacks typical leaves and instead wraps itself around host plant stems. Its flowers are small, about 4 to 7 millimeters long, with a distinctive corolla tube featuring delicately fringed scales and triangular-ovate lobes. The fruit is a small, cone-shaped capsule 5 to 9 millimeters wide, containing 1 to 4 oblong seeds arranged in a puzzle-like cellular pattern.

Habitat: Woody pls, e.g.,

Bloom period: Sep-Nov

Elevation: < 100 m

Bioregions: ScV, CCo, and spreading

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