Cuscuta denticulata, commonly known as desert dodder or small-toothed dodder, is a thin, yellow to orange, parasitic annual vine in the morning glory family (Convulvulaceae), native to the deserts of the south-western United States and northern Mexico.[1]
It is an annual plant that grows as a very thin orange-ish parasitic vine, with clumping twinings around the host stems.[1] It parasitizes the host by sending small, short-lived rootlets (haustoria) into its tissues, from which it absorbs moisture and nutrients.[1]
Yellow to orange stems are without hairs, with minute scale-like leaves.[1]
It blooms from May to October with tiny spikes of clusters of miniature white, 5-parted bell shaped flowers.[1] Corolla lobes are bent back, with overlapping calyx lobes.[1] Both calyx and corolla have fine teeth on their margins, hence the species name and common name.[1] Fruits are conical capsules.[1]
It grows up to 4000feet in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert into Baja California.[1] It parasitizes plants of the creosote bush scrub and Joshua tree woodland communities, such as creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) and cheesebush (Ambrosia salsola).[1]