ETHNOBOTANY
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By Diana Lindsay
DODDER: Cuscuta californica Hook & Arn.. – Dodder, chaparral dodder, California dodder. Old folk names include: witch’s hair, strangleweed, devil’s hair, hairweed, and angel hair. Also called: wikat, mulyak hew’ [“lizard’s web”] (Cahuilla); haakwal pehaa (Kumeyaay); wepegi washai [“reddish grass”] (Tohono O’odham); ‘ayáayaka (Luiseño); ahiko ahen (Tongva/Gabrielino); cochear (Spanish). Varieties: Cuscuta californica Hook & Arn. var. californica. Chaparral dodder, short-flower chaparral dodder. Abundant in open areas. Found in Sentenac Canyon. Below 1500m. Known hosts: Abronia, Eriogonum, Artemisia, Baccharis, Brassica, Adenostoma. Cuscuta californica Hook & Arn. var. papillosa Yuncker. Rough chaparral Dodder, Paillose dodder. Uncommon. Found in Borrego Palm Canyon and Borrego Valley below 1000m. Known host: Ambrosia. Cuscuta subinclusa Durand & Hilg. [Cuscuta ceanothi Behr]. Canyon Dodder. Frequent. On open slopes, foothills and desert above 400m. Found in Oriflamme Canyon, Canebrake Canyon. Known hosts: Rhus, Malosma, Baccharis, Chilopsis, Ceanothus, Prunus, Salix, Quercus. Cuscuta denticulata Engelm. Desert Dodder. Rare. San Felipe Creek at Hwy 78. Known hosts: Larrea, Hymenoclea, Ericameria. Cuscuta salina Engelm var. salina. Salty dodder. Common in inland salt marshes. Found near Carrizo Stage Station. Known host: Suaeda. Cuscuta spp. – Dodder. Also called: vamad giikoa [“snake’s crown or headdress”], vamad givud [“snake’s belt”], vamad vijina [snake’s rope, thread, or web”] Pima; cochear (Spanish). Family: Convolvulaceae – Morning-Glory Family An annual parasitic vine with thread-like, twining stems, yellow-green to bright orange, general glabrous (without hairs). Leaves are reduced to scales. Flowers are small and white, about 3 mm wide, and seeds are smaller. Chorophyll levels vary from very low to absent. The genus Cuscuta, with 100-170 species, was formerly in its own family – Cuscutaceae – until genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group placed it correctly into the morning glory family. The genus is found in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world. Twelve species occur in southern California (Roberts).
According to an NPR radio program reporting on an article in Science [Vol 313; Sept. 29, 2006, by Runyon, Mescher, and De Moraes, researchers at Penn State University], dodder has the ability to “sniff out� its victim and move toward them after the seeds germinate. Dodder seedlings must find a host within 5-10 days after germination or they will die. Tendrils wrap around the victim, and then pierce the stem and begin extracting nutrients via haustoria from the host plant. Hosts are both herbaceous or woody shrubs. Native Americans harvested dodder in summer and fall. Native American Use: Food: Parched seeds of a Cuscuta spp. was used as food by the Navajo. Fiber: The Cahuilla used C. californica as a scouring pad for cleaning. Medicinal: The Cahuilla used C. californica as a poultice to stop bleeding. It was also used on poisonous spider bites. Dodder picked from buckwheat plants was boiled by the Kumeyaay and served as a tea as an antidote for black widow bites (Hedges). Largo also lists a wide variety of western medicinal uses and properties from various species of Cuscuta from several sources that include: the treatment of liver, spleen, urinary, gall bladder, and respiratory dysfunctions. Also listed is male sexual enhancement with use of an extract made from dodder seeds. Other properties according to Largo include: laxative, diuretic, contraceptive, emetic, abortifacient, and anti-cancer. It can also cause impotence and shrinkage of the testes. Too much dodder can lead to vomiting and death. The Pima Indians feared species of Cuscuta and considered it poison (Rea). The Paiute used some species of Cuscuta as a contraceptive plant. Other: Used to make a yellow/orange dye.
Sources: Bruce G. Baldwin, ed., The Jepson Desert Manual: Vascular Plants of Southeastern California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), pp. 280-281, 283. Lowell John Bean and Katherine Siva Saubel, Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants (Banning, CA: Malki Museum Press, 1972), p. 59. R. Mitchel Beauchamp, A Flora of San Diego County, California (National City, CA: Sweetwater River Press, 1986), pp. 144-145. Duffie Clemons, Plants of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (Borrego Springs: Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, 1986), p. 13.
Ken Hedges and Christina Beresford, Santa Ysabel Ethnobotany (San Diego: San Diego Museum of Man Ethnic Technology Notes No. 20, 1986), pp. 16-17. Donna Largo, Daniel F. McCarthy, and Marcia Roper, Medicinal Plants Used by Native American Tribes in Southern California (Banning, CA: Malki-Ballena Press, 2009), pp. 22-23. Daniel E. Moerman, Native American Ethnobotany (Portland: Timber Press, 1998), p. 189. Edith Van Allen Murphey, Indian Uses of Native Plants (Glenwood, Il: Meyerbooks, 1990), 54. Amadeo M. Rea, At the Desert’s Green Edge: An Ethnobotany of the Gila River Pima (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997), pp. 111-112. Jon P. Rebman and Michael G. Simpson, Checklist of the Vascular Plants of San Diego County (San Diego: San Diego Natural History Museum, 2006), p. 43. Norman C. Roberts, Baja California Plant Field Guide (La Jolla: Natural History Publishing Company, 1989), pp.165-166. James Payne Smith Jr., Vascular Plant Families (Eureka, CA: Mad River Press Inc., 1977), pp. 180-181, 191. Website: Bajacalifology.org – Ethnobotany: Plants http://members.cox.net/dlaylander/Bajacalifology/index1.htm Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuscuta http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6160709