[Verity]

Please can anyone tell me what this is and how is best to get rid of it.  We have been away for a couple of months and I find my sage plant covered in these red threads.  I think they arrived with some oregano last year but now I see it as a potential major problem.  Should I cut the sage down to the ground or spray what is there with something.
I have pulled lots of it off but will never get rid of all of it that way.
Help would be much appreciated.

[John J]

Hi Verity, I've seen Red Thread as a fungal disease on lawns but never growing through plants like this. I'm sure one of our members will be able to shed some light on the problem.

[JTh]

It looks like, dodder, Cuscuta sp., maybe Cuscuta europea? I would get rid of it as soon as possible, preferably burn it. I bought a basil with a similar threadlike growth that nearly suffocated the plant and I was advised to destroy it immediately before it spread to my other plants. I believe that was Cuscuta epithymun, which is paler, but which behaves in the same way. Dodder can be highly invasive, see more about this parasitic plant here ftp://https://web.stanford.edu/~cbross/dodder.html .


P7086528.jpg by Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr

[Umbrian]

Amazing parasitic plant - thanks for the link Jorun made fascinating reading.

[Verity]

Thank you very much, will cut sage down to the ground and check regularly to make sure it does not re-emerge.