General: Desert Dodder (Cuscuta denticulata) is yellow-orange, parasitic vine that commonly grows on shrubs, often completely covering the shrub. Small white flowers give rise to small, berry-like capsules from which the seeds are explosively ejected, thereby spreading seeds from one unhappy shrub to another.

Desert Dodder is a common component of shrub communities in washes and on upper bajadas in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zone. Other species of dodder are common elsewhere, including agricultural fields.

Family: Dodder (Cuscutaceae).

Other Names: Dodder.

Plant Form: Annual parasitic vine.

Height: Vine growing on shrubs and subtrees.

Stems: Thread-like, yellow-green to orange.

Leaves: None.

Flowers: Blooms late spring to fall.

Seeds: Fruit: berry-like capsule. Seeds small, explosively ejected from capsule.

Habitat: Mostly grows on shrubs in dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils in washes, desert flats, and upper bajadas.

Elevation: To about 4,000 feet.

Distribution: California to Utah, south into Baja California.

Comments: This species is common in middle-elevation shrub communities in the Mojave Desert Scrub life zone. Other species are common elsewhere, including in agricultural fields (e.g., alfalfa).