If you see a yellow-orange, spaghetti-like vine tangled in grass and twined up and over flowers and even shrubs, it’s not an alien invasion, it’s Dodder. This parasitic vine needs no chlorophyll or leaves, it drains its nutrients from the stems of the forbs it attacks. Note the dense clusters of small, white flowers.

FLOWERS: Summer. Clusters of white flowers, 1/8-inch long (3 mm), star-shaped with 5 pointed petals; yellow anthers extend beyond the petals, styles unequal length.

LEAVES: Absent.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert scrub, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,800–7,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, FL, KS, LA, NM, OK, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 20+ look-alike species of dodder in New Mexico, many in only one or a few counties.

NM COUNTIES: Various species widespread statewide. Records for C. umbellata in Bernalillo, Chaves, Cibola, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance, Union, Valencia.