Cuscuta arvensis, Beyrich Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: July to September.

Seed-time: August to October.

Range: New York to the Northwest Territory, southward to Florida and Texas; also in California. Habitat: Open situations; appears to dislike shade.

This is the most injurious species east of the Mississippi Valley, for it is not at all particular on what it feeds. One single plant has been recorded as spreading over and drawing nourishment from eight different species at once. Almost any herbaceous plant will do, but it likes the clovers best; and it likes to climb to the top of its host plant and spread a tangled mass of threads there, like a carpet; therefore it is more conspicuous than the lower-growing Clover Dodder and can sooner be detected in a field.

The strangling stems are pale yellow, very slender. Flowers in dense roundish clusters; calyx-lobes broad, obtuse; corolla-lobes pointed, the points inflexed and the scales within the tube of the corolla much fringed; stamens not exserted; capsules globular. Seeds nearly double the size of those of Clover Dodder, and in consequence very much harder to separate from clover seed. For this reason it is often called "Large-seeded Dodder," but this name is applied also to the Pretty Dodder (Cuscuta indecora, Choisy), which is more common to the western United States.

Means of control the same as for Clover Dodder.