Something is strangling my plant

[Desert rose]

why is this happening, where did it come from, how do I get rid of it

[applestar]

Oh cool! (...er... Sorry! )

I think this is dodder https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7496.html

[rainbowgardener]

OMG... That is one that I wasn't familiar with and now I'm grateful. A fast spreading vine that doesn't just strangle/ smother, it actually parasitizes and sucks the juices out of plants, shrubs, trees. Spreads rapidly by seeds, but also from little cut pieces, and from the little parasitic tip that invades the host plant and is left behind when you remove the vine. Survives herbicides. The seeds survive burning.

It sounds like something you could make a horror movie out of!

[Desert rose]

It kinda does...
I was surprised to have found one. Also, I thought they mainly flourished in Tasmania.

[rainbowgardener]

There are a number of different species of it and apparently they are pretty well distributed around the world. The article I read about it was from California. California has its own species Cuscuta californica and apparently it is a major pest that the state has a special eradication program for.

Wiki says The genus is found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world, with the greatest species diversity in subtropical and tropical regions; the genus becomes rare in cool temperate climates, with only four species native to northern Europe.

One of the things that makes it a vicious pest is that it can use so many different plants/ weeds/ crops for hosts including alfalfa, lespedeza, flax, clover, potatoes, chrysanthemum, dahlia, helenium, trumpet vine, ivy and petunias, and a variety of trees and shrubs. Folk names for dodder include devil's guts, devil's hair, devil's ringlet, goldthread, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, love vine, pull-down, strangleweed, angel hair, and witch's hair. I get all the ones about devils and hell, but love vine?

I thought this was interesting from the Wiki article: A report published in Science in 2006 demonstrated that dodder use airborne volatile organic compound cues to locate their host plants. Seedlings of Cuscuta pentagona exhibit positive growth responses to volatiles released by tomato and other species of host plants. When given a choice between volatiles released by the preferred host tomato and the non-host wheat, the parasite grew toward the former.

[applestar]

Yeah, I think this one ranks up there with Venus Fly Trap originally only found in South? Carolina in an isolated pocket that I read somewhere was a meteor crater site (not sure if that was true) and Little Shop of Horrors....