Parasitic Daughter

 You know you have seen too many crime shows when a pile of orange stuff in a field feels like the beginning of a Bones episode.  Dodder (Cuscuta salina) is a native parasitic plant that occurs in wetlands-- it's bright orange, hugs close to it's host and is usually spread out.  However, last week, Ingrid and I saw this... pile of the stuff in a mitigation wetland we were checking out.  The denseness made the parasite seem even more alien.