Other pictures of this plant:

               Seedpod                                           Leaf                                            Stem                                        Seed                                          Habit

               Seedling

Facts About this Plant:

Synonyms: Grammica gronovii
Lifespan: Annual
Zones: N/A
Type: Forb
Bloom Time: July - November
Status: Native
Range:


Cuscuta gronovii, or Scaldweed, is native to almost the entire continental United States, except three western states. It is an annual vine that grows in swamps, wet meadows and fields, streambanks, pond margins, wet prairies and moist woods. It blooms from mid summer into fall with bright white flowers.

This plant is often called a perennial, but it actually cannot be. All species of Cuscuta come up from seed and then quickly send out a vine which connects to a host plant and begins growing on it, as a parasite; shortly after, the roots of the seedling dry up, leaving nothing for the plant to return from in subsequent years. It continues to grow and feed off the host plant until it blooms and sets seed and begins again the next season.

Cuscuta species are notorious for being very difficult to identify. Cuscuta gronovii looks very similar to some other members of the genus and cannot be reliably identified until it is in flower or fruit. It has mostly blunt petals that stand out from the center of the flower, they are not pointed (though some may be), and the petals do not reflex backwards, or curve inward or upward. Also, the presence of a stylopodium on most seed pods set this apart from other similar species.

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