9/14/08 AS THE SONG SAYS, "THIS CAN'T BE LOVE"

Sunday, 8:15 AM. 50 degrees, wind WNW, light with gusts. The channel is m0stly glassy and the sky overcast. The barometer predicts rain, which we got six-tenths of an inch of yesterday afternoon.
Note the orange vine growing on the ornamental plants in the large pot. It is a parasitic flowering plant, without green leaves or any chlorophyll at all, and I thus thought it would be of interest. It is in the genus Cucutus, in the morning glory family. There are perhaps a dozen species of these plants native to North America, and more in Europe and South America. This plant, variously called dodder, strangleweed, hellweed and love-vine, can be a very noxious weed on some agricultural crops and is a very nasty thing one would not wish to escape into a garden, even though many species of dodder need very specific host plants to survive. The species are very difficult to key out and I will not try. I was called to identify it and my recommendation is to destroy it before it flowers (it is about ready to), burn or bury the ornamental plants it is growing on, and sanitize anything that could harbor seeds.
My supposition is that the seed that produced this plant survived in improperly sterilized potting soil. Composted soil or manure, etc., must reach a temperature of above 180 degrees for a good length of time to kill seeds and spores, or must be properly steamed or chemically treated. With a “lover” like this, who needs enemies?