Cuscuta americanaL.

American dodder

WFO wfo-0001297192 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Cuscuta americana, photographed by Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter
fig. a Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-27 / obs. 184862688
Cuscuta americana, photographed by Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter
fig. b Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184862738
Cuscuta americana, photographed by kclarksdnhmorg
fig. c kclarksdnhmorg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57882758
Cuscuta americana, photographed by kclarksdnhmorg
fig. d kclarksdnhmorg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57882787

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Cuscuta americana is native: Florida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northwest, Aruba, Bahamas, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. FloridaMexico GulfMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NorthwestBrazil NortheastBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorHaitiJamaicaPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela ArubaBahamasLeeward Is.Netherlands AntillesVenezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Cuscuta americana, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northwest AGW SOUTHERN AMERICA
Aruba ARU
Bahamas BAH
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
Haiti HAI
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 12 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Cuscuta americana var. congesta (Benth.) Progel
  • Cuscuta americana var. spectabilis (Choisy) Progel
  • Cuscuta congesta Benth.
  • Cuscuta graveolens Kunth
  • Cuscuta leiolepis Miq.
  • Cuscuta spectabilis Choisy
  • Cuscuta surinamensis Schilling
  • Dactylepis brownei Raf.
  • Eronema robinsonii Raf.
  • Nemepis americana (L.) Raf.
  • Nemepis brownei Raf.
  • Nemepis prolifera Raf.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.