Episode 54: Vegan Vampires & The Devil's Hair- Dodder

dodder in bloom

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Rooted! This week we’re digging in to the edward cullen of the plant world- Dodder. 

Dodder, or Cascuta, is a genus of parasitic plant in the convulvacea or morning glory family, which makes a lot of sense when you think about how they grow 

These guys aren’t too picky, but they do prefer loose soil with plenty of plants around. 

Dodder is interesting because it doesn’t actually contain much (if any) chlorophyll, and leaves that are virtually non existent. They get most of their nutrients from host plants, which they literally strangle and sink their teeth into…but instead of teeth, it’s actually a creepy little probe called a haustoria, which essentially taps into the plant and sucks it’s nutrients directly out if it. 

In most cases, once dodder starts, it is nearly impossible to stop. You’ve likely seen it swallowing up full prairies, replacing the canopy of trees, or strangling an innocent patch of wildflowers out in nature. 

This is because Dodder doesnt have to work to make it’s food, so it’s easier to spread and absorb when you can cover more ground! PLus, once these bad boys go to seed, they send out hundreds of teeny tiny bits into the wind. And once those germinate, the only way to stop them from spreading is to pick them before they start to strangle. 

If you want to save a plant from the chokehold of Dodder, unfortunately you can’t just pull it off of them. Instead, you’ll need to rip the dodder from the ground, separate it from the plant, and prune back anywhere the dodder was touching, as once those teeth sink in, there’s no way to remove them, and dodder can actually grow back from those freaky little fangs. 

Because it is such a menace, you might have imagined that it’s banned in most places. It’s illegal to sell seed, and even to knowingly sell crop seeds that also have dodder seeds in them. 

While it sounds terrible, some plants have figured out a way around this- especially tomatoes, which have actually developed a chemical receptor that reacts when those creepy little probes try to make their way in, hardening the stem and starving the dodder out by making it impossible for it to sink it’s teeth into them. 

Interestingly, tobacco (another nightshade member) was used in a study to determine if dodder was capable of transmitting things, or just sucking up nutrients! Spoiler alert- it absolutely can, and they know this because they died the plant cells a fluorescent green, and sure enough Dodder had plenty of bright green showing up all over it’s creepy spaghetti like body. 

While that’s super unsettling, Dodder hasn’t always been all bad. In ancient chinese medicine dodder was used to treat anything from general aches and pains to full blown osteoporosis, though no further verified research has really found how that actually works. 

While dodder is certainly interesting, it’s also gross, creepy, and everywhere. Next time you see it, do us all a favor and, just like the volturi, rip their little heads off. 

That’s all I’ve got for this week, but I’ll be back with another episode soon!