The Dodder That Ate the Celery Farm

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It seems to be everywhere, spreading its orange, spaghetti-like stems over any plant it wants to. And stems it is; there are no leaves; there is no chlorophyll—and therefore there is no photosynthesis. So when it comes to food, the Dodder has to get it from a plant that IS green and CAN make food by photosynthesis.

Here’s how it works. Dodder grows from seeds. Its tiny seedlings grope about, sniffing the air for chemicals emitted from nearby greenery. When they come in contact with a likely host plant, they quickly grow around its stems and soon penetrate them with specialized roots called haustoria. The haustoria enter the vascular tissue (veins) of the host and absorb food, water and minerals to nourish the Dodder. The original root of the Dodder disintegrates, leaving it completely dependent on the host plant.

As you can see, it’s a very successful way of life. The Dodder quickly grows, spreads to other plants and even produces flowers, which in turn produce a lot of seeds for the next growing season.

With more and more growing at the Celery Farm each year, one wonders how much of an ecological problem it might get to be. Time will tell. No use trying to eradicate the stuff. The seeds can last in the ground for up to seventy years, so they say.

Dodder, AKA “devil’s guts” (and a whole bunch of other names people have given it over the years), is a true parasite, drawing not just water and minerals, but ready-made carbohydrates from its host plant. I don’t know how much damage it does to the host, but it surely can’t help.

Parasitism is one form of symbiosis. The more friendly kind is called mutualism, in which each partner in the relationship contributes something good. Such is the case in those crusty things called lichens, in which the fungus partner soaks up water and the alga partner makes food, so that the lichen can grow on a bare rock. Parasitism is all take and no give. We don’t admire it in humans and it surely was not a part of God’s original “very good” creation.

The Fall brought about ugliness in every aspect of the cosmos. We can’t wait ‘til He fixes it. Reflect upon the situation here.