Okay, I haven't posted in a while but here's another plant...
It’s orange. It sinks it’s ‘teeth’ into another plant. It ‘smells’ other plants. No roots. It looks like it has no leaves. It is quick to search out a victim.
This is a plant, right?
Cuscuta salina is a parasite in the salt-marsh, visible by the tangled mats of orange wrapped amongst the green pickleweed stems. Maybe we need to clarify some things before we talk about Cuscuta proper. First a parasite isn’t necessarily bad; parasites don’t kill their host (well, sometimes I suppose), they need the host to live. A parasitoid kills the host; a parasite needs the host for all of their own nutrition. For this plant, parasitism gives it its unique characteristics. It is orange because it doesn’t get nutrition from the sun but rather from the water and nutrients made from the sun in other plants. To do this, Cuscuta has haustoria (teeth) that puncture the host plant tissue and, like a vampire, suck out a bunch of that goodness (but not too much because then it would kill it).
What is fun about this plant- other than it being orange- is that it grows from one of the gazillion little seeds put out by the fruit, quickly shooting into the air and then searching for the nearest green thing to attach itself to. How it does this is through ‘smelling’ its host. There are airborne chemicals produced by its favorite plant(s) and the Dodder will follow its ‘nose’ to the source. Once attached, the roots are no longer necessary and they shrivel up and go away.
This particular species has an affinity for halophytes (salt-marsh plants). It too can live with salt (not too hard, I would imagine, for a plant that doesn’t have roots) but, more importantly, it likes the smell of salty plants. I see it on top of all the salt marsh plants but mostly on pickleweed. This is one my favorites to show kids because it looks like silly string.
It is in the Convolvulaceae family, related to Morning Glory. It has really pretty, itty-bitty white flowers when it blossoms in the summer.
I am attaching a link that has much better photos and more technical verbiage. And a video that takes forever to download but is kinda cool. http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/dodder.htm
Oh and the photo above is from the Aquarium of the Pacific - an amazing place in Long Beach to learn about Marine everything! And they have Sea Lions which is never bad.
This is a plant, right?
Cuscuta salina is a parasite in the salt-marsh, visible by the tangled mats of orange wrapped amongst the green pickleweed stems. Maybe we need to clarify some things before we talk about Cuscuta proper. First a parasite isn’t necessarily bad; parasites don’t kill their host (well, sometimes I suppose), they need the host to live. A parasitoid kills the host; a parasite needs the host for all of their own nutrition. For this plant, parasitism gives it its unique characteristics. It is orange because it doesn’t get nutrition from the sun but rather from the water and nutrients made from the sun in other plants. To do this, Cuscuta has haustoria (teeth) that puncture the host plant tissue and, like a vampire, suck out a bunch of that goodness (but not too much because then it would kill it).
What is fun about this plant- other than it being orange- is that it grows from one of the gazillion little seeds put out by the fruit, quickly shooting into the air and then searching for the nearest green thing to attach itself to. How it does this is through ‘smelling’ its host. There are airborne chemicals produced by its favorite plant(s) and the Dodder will follow its ‘nose’ to the source. Once attached, the roots are no longer necessary and they shrivel up and go away.
This particular species has an affinity for halophytes (salt-marsh plants). It too can live with salt (not too hard, I would imagine, for a plant that doesn’t have roots) but, more importantly, it likes the smell of salty plants. I see it on top of all the salt marsh plants but mostly on pickleweed. This is one my favorites to show kids because it looks like silly string.
It is in the Convolvulaceae family, related to Morning Glory. It has really pretty, itty-bitty white flowers when it blossoms in the summer.
I am attaching a link that has much better photos and more technical verbiage. And a video that takes forever to download but is kinda cool. http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/dodder.htm
Oh and the photo above is from the Aquarium of the Pacific - an amazing place in Long Beach to learn about Marine everything! And they have Sea Lions which is never bad.
Enjoy
Taylor
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