Cuscuta, another parasitic plant

I made it out early yesterday for my weekly gull nest survey. I’m going through the photos and will get an update out in the next day or two.

In the meantime, last Monday I happened to be passing by Boundary Bay and stopped off to find a curious plant I’d seen reported on iNaturalist. It’s a species of Cuscuta, colloquially known as dodder, a genus of parasitic plants with a cosmopolitan distribution.

Identifying Cuscuta to species is notoriously difficult and technical, however there’s good reason to believe the plant I spotted is Cuscuta pacifica given the salt marsh habitat it’s in, as well as the species of plant being parasitized (primarily Salicornia).

Cuscuta in flower

It’s my first time seeing this plant, and what a treat to find it in full flower.

Cuscuta

A closer look at the flowers and how it entwines the other plants.

Cuscuta

A wider view showing a patch of the Cuscuta.

Salicornia

A close-up of the main plant the Cuscuta is parasitizing. This is probably Salicornia pacifica aka Pacific Glasswort. Like the Cuscuta, it is a halophyte – a plant that is adapted to making a living in environments with high salinity.

Until next time…