Cuscuta campestris 'Yellow Dodder'

[Mandraki Harbour, 2m, Rhodos, Rhodes, Greece]

Convolvulaceae: A twinging parasitic annual. Parasitic with members of the pea family. Its flowers grow in small globular clusters and are about two 2mm long. The fruit is a capsule. The plant has no leaves, just a tangle of yellow stems that extract water and nutrients from its host. Native to central North America. It has become naturalised in the Mediterranean.

USES:

Dodder is a valuable though little used herbal remedy that supports the liver, being used for problems affecting the liver and gallbladder. The whole plant has antibilious, appetizer, carminative, cholagogue, mildly diuretic, hepatic, laxative and antiscorbutic properties. A decoction of the stems is used in the treatment of urinary complaints, kidney, spleen and liver disorders, jaundice, sciatica and scorbutic complaints.

GROWING INFORMATION:

Cuscuta species are obligate parasites with negligible chlorophyll, totally dependent on attachment to a host plant within a few days after germination. Germination does not depend on the presence of host plants but occurs over a prolonged period as there is a proportion of hard-coated seeds which gradually become permeable and allow absorption of water. This ensures that not too many seeds germinate at one time in the possible absence of a potential host plant. In many species, there is also an innate dormancy which is broken by chilling over the winter. In eastern Lithuania, germination of C. europaea was shown to be abundant after rain at the end of May and beginning of June when the sum of effective temperatures exceeded 25°C. On germination a very short root is formed which provides anchorage only, while the plumule elongates rapidly and, in the light, circumnutates widely anticlockwise until contact is made with a stem or other solid object. The length of the seedling rarely exceeds 10cm and if a host is not located, the seedling dies within a few days. Once contact with a stem or other object is made, the shoot will twine around it, whether living or inanimate and the root and shoot base below this point will soon die.

NOTES: All Cuscuta species are frequently listed as prohibited, quarantine species, and are prohibited in every state of the USA. Also New Zealand. C. europaea has not proved to be a highly invasive species, but there are very significant risks of accidental introduction with contaminated crop seed and any such introduction could cause serious crop damage.

HARVESTED: 2019

 

APPROX. 50 SEEDS