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North American (Michigan) Dodder (1 Viewer)

Draco

Well-known member
Here is what you get if you try to "rake" your hand through the "stuff".
 

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Say goodbye to this wildflower garden...

The whole thing has been infested.
 

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See the orange spot in the middle?

It is starting to threaten shrubs and trees.

I can now say that any American who sees this in their yard to act fast! Kill it with fire! I am experimenting with a chemical compound that I hope will be easier and safer than burning. Two weeks until the verdict is in.
 

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Beverly,

I wish that it was even close to kudzu!

Dodder is a parasitic vine. It has no visible leaves. They are the most primitive type of leaf, resembling a small scale on the vine. It does flower, unfortunately, and reproduces this way. Fire and freezing will kill it, but the seeds will sprout the following year if it allowed to go to seed. When the seed sprouts the vine starts its search for a "host". It wraps itself tightly around its first host and detaches from the soil. It then begins to feed on (in my case, my entire wildflower garden) the first host and moves on to the next. It is living Agent Orange! I have photos of it wrapping up fern fronds.

I had not heard of it and neither had a friend at work who is an avid gardener. My father is a Master Gardener and lives in southern Florida. He says that it gets into mature Oak Trees there and the only method of killing the Dodder is to cut the tree down!

I suspect that Dodder would only be found in very rural areas, near farming, or open field types of places. If it were a common garden problem everyone would know it all too well.

Mark
 
It's terrible..

I have lost much of what I have worked for years to create. The wildflowers were all native and seeded themselves. I have just pulled out what I didn't want to make room for stuff that I did.

The Dodder is native. Different varieties are found over most of the world. Some are not as nasty as mine is from what I have learned.

As I mentioned in another thread, one of the sad parts of this is that one of the birds that I like to have around probably "planted" this suff for me! I don't suppose that we have any more, or less, than we have had for years. I just got lucky enough to get a couple of patches of it this year. If I can just kill it before it drops seeds I can start to collect seeds this fall from wildflowers in other parts of my yard and start to reclaim my garden(s).

Mark
 
It is native in the US, and also (same genus, different species) in Britain and Europe - so it is a perfectly natural part of the ecosystem.

Of course 99.99% of the seedlings probably don't make it, never manage to connect with a suitable host when they germinate. So that does control the numbers well. Where I am, it is actually very rare, I've hardly ever seen it.

There are several species, which vary in the hosts they parasitise. Most are (as in Draco's pics) low-growing, it isn't easy for them to get into trees, they can only do it if there is a continuous 'ladder' of fairly tender vegetation they can climb up by (they can't penertrate thick tree bark). So if you have it in a tree, mow the vegetation under it in the spring, and it'll not get back in the next year.

Michael
 
Mark,

I've been following your Dodder problem with interest, and a great deal of sympathy.

I looks and sounds like a gardener's worst nightmare.

Clearly you've done a lot of research, and I sincerely wish you the best of good fortune to combat your invader.

I'm glad to hear you will be trying to collect your seeds in an attempt to reclaim your garden - I hope you are successful. I know I would feel devastated if I lost my garden, and it is only in its second year.

Any chance of a Big Freeze this winter to help you out, or does it take deep freezing to kill it?
 
Thanks guys...

The winter freeze will kill it here (especially if it's as cold as it was last year!) I hope to do it in before then, though, as it will surely flower and seed itself before fall if I can't kill it. If a dousing of herbicide doesn't work I plan to burn it. I have enough dead wood available for a couple of nice bon(voyage)fires!
 
Michael,

I guess my father's problem in southern Florida is that it never freezes there, so once the plant gets in a tree it's there for good. It can't "penetrate" bark, but can get a good foothold in it. I didn't immediately burn because I found several sources that said that 2-4-D will kill it. In addition to being a Master Gardener, my father works for the local University Extension Service and helps folks with these sort of problems. He wants me to try the herbicide because they may be able to save some Oak trees if it does work. The theory is that they could try to pull most of it out of the trees and use paint rollers, or spray, to hit the stuff that they can't pull. Of course, every day has been too windy, or has threatened to rain, so my "experiment" is waiting for the right moment. I'm hoping that the Dodder is putting flowering on hold, as well.;)

Mark
 
Thanks Steve,

I looked over the site for quite a while and know that you mentioned that I could e-mail him. I hesitated to bother someone who I don't know with e-mail. Are you sure that he wouldn't mind?

Mark
 
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