A plant of the genus Cuscuta, one species of which is called hell-weed. It is almost destitute of leaves, parasitical, creeping and fixing itself to some other plant, as to hops, flax and particularly to the nettle. It decays at the root, and is nourished by the plant that supports it, by means of little vesicles or papillae, which attach themselves to the stalk.
Word of the Day: Catachrestical
A plant of the genus Cuscuta. It is a leafless parasitical vine with yellowish threadlike stems. It attaches itself to some other plant, as to flax, goldenrod, etc., and decaying at the root, is nourished by the plant that supports it.
Dodder
Encyclopedia Britannica
DODDER (Frisian dodd, a bunch; Dutch dot, ravelled thread), the popular name of the annual, leafless, twining, epiphytic plants forming the genus Cuscuta and natural order Cuscutaceae or, according to some botanists, the tribe Cuscuteae of the Convolvulaceae. All the species are natives of temperate regions, and all have strong acrid properties. The flowers, which grow in clusters, have a quinque-partite, coloured calyx; scales alternating with the corolline lobes; carpels forming a syncarpous ovary; the albumen of the seeds fleshy; and the embryo spiral, filiform, and acotyledonous. On coming in contact with the living stem of some other plant the seedling dodder throws out a sucker, by which it attaches itself and commences to absorb the sap of its foster-parent; it then soon ceases to have any connection with the ground. As it grows, it throws out fresh suckers, establishing itself firmly on its victim. After making a few turns round one stem the dodder finds its way to another, and thus it continues twining and branching till it resembles “fine, closely-tangled, wet catgut.” The injury done to flax, clover, hop, and bean crops by species of dodder is often very great. C. europaea, the Greater Dodder, is found parasitic on nettles, thistles, vetches, and the hop; C. Epilinum, on flax; G . Epithymum, on furze, ling, and thyme. C. Trifolii, the Clover Dodder, is perhaps a sub-species of the last-mentioned. For a figure of C. verrucosa, the Warty Dodder, see vol. iv. pl. x.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 7, p. 319
[249 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]
[249 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]
Overgrown with dodder; covered with supercrescent plants.
Age Roget’s Thesaurus §128
N. age, oldness, old age, advanced age, golden years, senility, senescence, years, anility, gray hairs, climacteric, grand climacteric, declining years, decrepitude, hoary age, caducity, superannuation, second childhood, second childishness, dotage, vale of years, decline of life, "sear and yellow leaf", threescore years and ten, green old age, ripe age, longevity, time of life, seniority, eldership, elders, firstling, doyen, father, primogeniture, geriatrics, nostology|
V. be aged, grow old, get old, age, decline, wane, dodder, senesce
Adj. aged, old, elderly, geriatric, senile, matronly, anile|, in years, ripe, mellow, run to seed, declining, waning, past one's prime, gray, gray-headed, hoar, hoary, venerable, time-worn, antiquated, passe, effete, decrepit, superannuated, advanced in life, advanced in years, stricken in years, wrinkled, marked with the crow's foot, having one foot in the grave, doting, like the last of pea time, older, elder, eldest, senior, firstborn, turned of, years old, of a certain age, no chicken, old as methuselah, ancestral, patriarchal, &c. (ancient) 124, gerontic
Phr. "give me a staff of honor for my age", bis pueri senes, peu de gens savent elre vieux, plenus annis abiit plenus honoribus, "old age is creeping on apace", "slow-consuming age", "the hoary head is a crown of glory", "the silver livery of advised age", to grow old gracefully, "to vanish in the chinks that time has made"
No Bible verses found for "Dodder".