Cuscuta subinclusa

Canyon dodder

Family: Convolvulaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Canyon dodder is a California native parasitic plant found in diverse bioregions including the Northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, Southern Coast Ranges, Southern California, northern Channel Islands, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, San Jacinto Mountains, and Great Basin at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from March to October, this plant produces small cream to yellowish flowers clustered in dense head-like groups of 5 to 20 blooms. Growing as a threadlike parasitic vine that attaches to host plants like herbs and shrubs in stream corridors and river canyon bottoms, it lacks chlorophyll and depends entirely on its host for nutrition. Its flowers are distinctive, with bell-shaped calyxes and corolla tubes featuring horizontally ridged surfaces and spreading lobes. The tiny fruit is nearly ovoid, measuring 1.5 to 3 millimeters wide and capped by the persistent corolla.

Habitat: Generally on herbs, shrubs, in forests near streams, river canyon bottoms, salt marshes

Bloom period: Mar-Oct(Dec?)

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: NCoR, CaR, SN, GV, CCo, SnFrB, SCoR, SCo, n ChI (Santa Cruz Island), TR, PR, SnJt, GB

California counties: Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles, Inyo, Kern, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Napa, Ventura, Contra Costa, Butte, Riverside, Plumas, Lake, Tulare, Alameda, El Dorado, San Luis Obispo, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sacramento, Nevada, Solano, Marin, Fresno, Stanislaus, Merced, San Mateo, Sonoma, Sierra, Yuba, Santa Cruz, Mariposa, Santa Clara, Monterey, San Benito, Humboldt, Calaveras, Tuolumne, Mendocino, Modoc, Yolo, Trinity, Placer

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