Weeds of Australia - Fact Sheet

Top Scientific Name Family Common Names Origin Naturalised Distribution Notes

Scientific Name

Cuscuta campestris Yunck.

Family

Cuscutaceae (Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory)
Convolvulaceae (Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia)

Common Names

angel's hair, beggar vine, beggarvine, common dodder, dodder, field dodder, five-angled dodder, golden dodder, love vine, prairie dodder, strangle vine, strangleweed, western field dodder

Origin

The actual native range of this species is obscure. It is thought to be native to North America (i.e. Canada, USA and Mexico) and parts of the Caribbean (i.e. the Bahamas, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Jamaica and Martinique). Possibly also native to parts of South America.

Naturalised Distribution

This species is widely naturalised throughout the coastal and sub-coastal regions of Australia. It is most abundant in south-eastern South Australia (particularly along the Murray River and its tributaries), south-eastern Queensland and eastern New South Wales. It has a scattered distribution throughout Victoria, in the coastal areas of northern and south-western Western Australia, in northern and central Queensland, and in inland New South Wales. Also naturalised in the northern parts of the Northern Territory.

Notes

Golden dodder (Cuscuta campestris) is regarded as an environmental weed in some parts of Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. It is actively managed by community groups in Western Australia and is listed as a priority environmental weed in three Natural Resource Management regions. It is a parasitic plant that is largely known as a pest of crops, particularly of plants belonging to the daisy family (i.e. Asteraceae). However, it also attacks a wide range of naturalised species and native plants that are growing in grasslands, open woodlands, coastal vine thickets, riparian areas and wetlands.

It causes damage by absorbing food material from the host plant, but the dense mat of stems it produces can also cause shading of the ground vegetation layer. Golden dodder (Cuscuta campestris) is mainly of concern as an environmental weed in inland wetlands. For example, it is frequently seen growing along Willandra Creek and its lagoons in Willandra National Park in the Riverina region of southern New South Wales. It commonly attacks naturalised plants in this area (e.g. Noogoora burr, Xanthium occidentale), but also parasitises native plants including lignum (Muehlenbeckia florulenta). It is also of concern in the Lake Lalbert Wildlife Reserve in northern Victoria, where it is spreading and is thought to pose a threat to the natural integrity of this wetland community.