Old folk names include devil’s guts, devil’s hair, devil’s ringlet, goldthread, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, love vine, pull-down, strangleweed, angel hair, and witch’s hair, and witches shoelaces–according to wikipedia.
As it is not your typical showy wildflower, I don’t think I have ever photographed it before now, though I first observed it during my systematic botany days in Auburn in the early 70s.
I have known it as dodder vine, and found it notable for its unusual plant lifestyle: it contains almost no chlorophyll and does not need it. It’s food comes from a host plant.
That this plant is parasitic is something I knew. I did not know, however, how clever it was in sensing out its optimal host. This PBS time-lapse of dodder’s tendrils (you see here in orange coils) is informative and amazing. Strangleweed, indeed!
And looking closely at this specimen on the Parkway last week, you can easily see the “haustoria”–the feeding growths that derive from the vine and grow into the vascular tissue of the plants that become the support and food source.
And once this happens, the original roots on the dodder sprout disappear, and the entire plant grows unconnected to the ground, sometimes high into the canopy of small trees. Or field crops. You can imagine that this flowering plant is not popular among farmers who already have enough to contend with in the insects, blights and weeds that vie for their cash crops.
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What an interesting plant. Needless to say I had never seen it but it really is quite beautiful. Does it serve any purpose? You do amaze me– in so many ways and I am Soooo proud of you. And you’re a good iPad doctor too!!
Not beautiful to me, but fascinating, as was the time-lapse link.
Is that cassytha filiformis? We have it down here, too – it is a real problem in some areas. It likes to get up in oak trees and it will eventually kill them. The only solution I know of is to manually rip it out.