Greetings fellow Foxies,
Dodder Laurel (family Cassytha) is a good honest parasite that doesn’t hide its intentions.
Unlike hemiparasites like mistletoe, quandong, sandalwood, Leptomeria, and Christmas tree, it is a stem holoparasite that gets all its fixed carbon from its host. It germinates in the soil but has suckers on its stems that tap into the conducting vessels in stems of their host. Plants have numerous thin twining stems with almost no leaves that form a mat on their host. Like many plant parasites they are pale green, have minute flowers, and forms a fruit that birds and animals eat to distribute them.
Dodder laurels are quite common on Drummond’s mallee in Candy Block yellow sand, and I found one on a fallen sheoak in Foxes Lair. Different species I think.
A senior Parks and Wildlife Service officer questioned the sanity of anyone interested in dodder laurel, but he will eat his words when he reads this link on its health benefits.
Dodder Laurel (family Cassytha) is a good honest parasite that doesn’t hide its intentions.
Unlike hemiparasites like mistletoe, quandong, sandalwood, Leptomeria, and Christmas tree, it is a stem holoparasite that gets all its fixed carbon from its host. It germinates in the soil but has suckers on its stems that tap into the conducting vessels in stems of their host. Plants have numerous thin twining stems with almost no leaves that form a mat on their host. Like many plant parasites they are pale green, have minute flowers, and forms a fruit that birds and animals eat to distribute them.
Dodder laurels are quite common on Drummond’s mallee in Candy Block yellow sand, and I found one on a fallen sheoak in Foxes Lair. Different species I think.
A senior Parks and Wildlife Service officer questioned the sanity of anyone interested in dodder laurel, but he will eat his words when he reads this link on its health benefits.
 mass of stems engulfing a mallee |  |  attachment lesions after suckers removed |
 Foxes Lair plant hairy stems |  fruit |  opening flower |