About Cuscuta approximata Bab.
Cuscuta approximata Bab. is a species of dodder commonly known as alfalfa dodder. It is native to Eurasia and Africa, and has been introduced to North America, where it is an uncommon noxious weed. It is a parasitic vine that climbs other plants and absorbs nutrition directly from them using a haustorium. This dodder looks like a mass of light yellow to orange-red straw wrapped tightly around its host plant. Its structure is mostly made up of stems; its leaves are reduced to small scales on the stem surface, as they are not used for photosynthesis when the dodder is getting nutrients from its host. It produces clusters of tiny yellowish bell-shaped flowers that are only around 3 millimeters wide. The dodder reproduces by seed, and a single plant can produce more than 10,000 seeds at once. It is a weed that affects alfalfa, clover, tomatoes, other crop plants, and native flora. This species is sometimes classified as a subspecies of Cuscuta epithymum.
