An annual that is a parasitic climbing vine with sporatic and dense clusters of small white bellshaped flowers on coiled yellow to orange-red stems. Leaves are difficult to detect and are usually just a few small threadlike scales. May be specific to certain hosts.
Most plants are producers because they have chlorophyll and produce their own food.
A few, like dodder are consumers in the sense that they derive food from sources other than photosynthesis. Each year it produces seeds that fall to the ground and germinate in the soil. The young dodder is a 2-4 inch long threadlike plant which grows to locate its host, then the tiny root system eventually dies once the plant is firmly attached to the host. The stem sends out suckers which gives the plant its nourishment from the host this way. Then in late summer and fall the plant produces numerous tiny white flowers.