A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Cassytha melantha
A robust vine forming dense tangled mass, climbing and creeping over other plants. The small clusters of ovoid flowers in short spikes had sepals that were black in stark contrast with the white stigmas.There were no leaves seen at this time of year.
Spotted in a dry sclerophyll forest - part of Dandenong Ranges National Park.
An autralian native
This vine in parasitic and feeds through haustoria which in the case of dodders appear like pegs or cups on the vine. These connect the parasite with the host plant and assist with transfer of nutrients from host tothe parasitic plant. (Hopefully will post a shot of these)
Mature dodders sometimes lose their roots living solely on the host.
More information: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/ta...
A previous spotting of a fruiting dodder-laurel of another species from the same area
https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/17...
Spotted on Aug 15, 2021
Submitted on Aug 16, 2021
3 Comments
Thank you Sukanya. That's interesting.
I read Dodder is an Arabic name.
https://www.ecolandscaping.org/09/landsc...
Strange plant. I wonder why the name dodder.