dodder and pickleweed ~ 07/22/11 ~ Elkhorn Slough

salt marsh dodder on pickleweed

The orange stringy stuff is dodder, and the cactus-looking plant is pickleweed. When I first saw dodder at Elkhorn Slough, I thought someone's brightly-colored, tangled, plastic fishing line had washed in from the last high tide. It took seeing dodder at Pinnacles, too far away from any fishing, for me to figure out it is a plant, parasitic and alive.

blooming salt marsh dodder
Cuscuta salina 
Convolvulaceae (formerly Cuscutaceae)

So, imagine my further surprise to find dodder blooming... not just tiny little blooms, but relatively good-sized white blooms, way bigger than the thin orange stems supporting them. As of 1998, it has been moved to the morning glory family. Wild.

blooming pickleweed
Salicornia virginica (aka Salicornia depressa, Sarcocornia pacifica)
Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae)

When I first saw the dodder blooms, I thought it was the pickleweed blooming. Nope. Pickleweed has barely noticeable white blooms as shown above, which apparently has allergenic pollen. It, too, has been moved to a new family.

ps 10/07/11 - I wished I had linked to the reference of where I read the pollen was allergenic. I do remember a volunteer-looking fellow had stopped as I was taking these pictures to point out the tiny flowers on the pickleweed. We had a brief quip about how that was unexpected considering the more showy dodder blooms. In any case, the main reason for this postscript is that Wanderin' Weeta states the white stuff on the pickleweed are actually salt crystals, not flowers. I haven't been able to find any information about this. Do you know?

field bindweed ~ 07/22/11 ~ Elkhorn Slough

field bindweed / orchard morning glory
Convolvulus arvensis
Convolvulaceae

Seriously, after this post, I think I'm going to stay away from even attempting to identify bindweeds/morning glories. Between Calystegia, Convolvulus, Ipomoea, and Polygonum/Fallopia convolvulus (black bindweed) there are at least 51 sp./ssp./var. in CA with multiple name changes. Of those there are only a handful distinctive enough for non-experts like me to ID on the spot. Based on Wikipedia, I'm guessing this is the narrow leaved Convolvulus arvensis var. linearifolius. As a comparison, see what I think is the broader leaved variety from Hopkins.

field bindweed ~ 07/14/11 ~ Hopkins

field bindweed / orchard morning glory
Convolvulus arvensis
Convolvulaceae

This is my best guess and I could be totally wrong as to the ID. It is a low-growing plant with fuzzy leaves and stem. The bloom was smaller than other morning glories I've seen, but that could be due to the growing conditions right next to the Monterey Bay. The other hairy morning glory that grows in this area is the stemless morning glory (Calystegia subacaulis), but that's generally a white or cream flower. I have a feeling once I get better acquainted with morning glories, I'll be revisiting this ID.

ps 08/20/11 - Yep. I think I got this wrong. I discovered my mistake from looking up another morning glory/bindweed from Elkhorn Slough. I initially posted this as a native coast morning glory (Calystegia macrostegia ssp. cyclostegia). I tried to convince myself that despite photos not quite matching, that Jepson's description could apply. I've made the ID correction above for this invasive plant from Europe and Asia. If Wikipedia is to be believed this is the broader leaved Convolvulus arvensis var. arvensis. Seriously, how does one tell the difference between Calystegia and Convovulus?

purple western morning glory ~ 06/09/11 ~ Pinnacles

purple western morning glory / Pacific false bindweed
Calystegia purpurata ssp. purpurata
Convolvulaceae

I've avoided adding morning glories to Nature ID, because I assumed they were non-native and would be difficult to identify. Not entirely so. In fact, most of the 37 sp./ssp. of Calystegia found in CA are native, but they are difficult to ID. I admit to holding unfavorable prejudice towards non-natives. I don't like this attitude of mine, particularly in light of the fact I'm not exactly native to CA, or the USA for that matter. Interesting... and why is it that I prize rare, threatened, or endangered native plants? It's not like I hang out with plant people or any serious biology/ecology folks. I do know I've picked up this attitude regarding plants since I started blogging. Hmm? Anyone care to put in their two cents about plant prejudices?

ps 07/12/11 - As I was looking up additional plants from the Pinnacles area, I noticed there is also non-native field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) that looks very similar.

pss 08/04/11 - This morning I found this post from The Biology Refugia talking about biological xenophobia. Interesting.

salt marsh dodder on pickleweed
Cuscuta salina on Salicornia virginica
Convolvulaceae (formerly Cuscutaceae) and Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae)

I first posted dodder from my Pinnacles hike on April 16, 2009. I found it interesting that this dodder was on pickleweed, considering I would assume there's high salt content. I don't know enough about how the salt is stored in pickleweed or how the dodder obtains it nutrients from plants to explain this.

ps 05/09/10 - By happenstance, I came across this Elkhorn Slough Research site and was able to confirm IDs of both plants to species. A better summary of the research is here. Interesting to note Wikipedia says recent research has placed dodder in the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), but I'll stick with Calflora until they make a correction. Plus, pickleweed is now being placed in the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae). And, no, the Katie in the article is not me.
ps 08/03/11 - Both dodder and pickleweed have been moved to new families by APG and followed by Jepson.

dodder
Cuscuta sp.
Convolvulaceae (formerly Cuscutaceae)

This parasite is very strange to behold. It feels like slightly moist, stringy plastic strands. It took me until the Pacific Grove Museum's annual wildflower show to even know it was a native plant.

ps 08/03/11 - I've made corrections to the family name above. According to the Pinnacles plant list the 3 types of dodder are: San Joaquin dodder (Cuscuta californica var. breviflora), California dodder (Cuscuta californica var. californica), and canyon dodder (Cuscuta subinclusa). Without the flower there is no way for me to distinguish between species.