Question

How Cuscuta/Amarbel derive nutrition from the host?

Answer 1

After a dodder attaches itself to a plant, it wraps itself around it. If the host contains food beneficial to dodder, the dodder produces haustoria that insert themselves into the vascular system of the host. The original root of the dodder in the soil then dies. The dodder can grow and attach itself to multiple plants. In tropical areas it can grow more or less continuously, and may reach high into the canopy of shrubs and trees; in cold temperate regions it is an annual plant and is restricted to relatively low vegetation that can be reached by new seedlings each spring.