Stems very slender and pale yellow, flowers mainly in small, loose clusters. Flowers are glandular (a little sticky), ~1-2 mm long, mounted on pedicels (flower-stalks) about the same length as the flowers. It is hard to make out details on such small flowers, but they sit on round or ovate calyxes dotted with sticky glands and feature a somewhat bell-shaped tubular corolla, translucent white, divided into 4-5 pointed lobes, with a handful of stamens with yellow anthers (pollen-bearing structures) no longer than the lobes. Fruit is ~1-3.5 mm across, round in shape. Blooms July through September and is quite common, especially on stressed plants near roadsides, under 500 m in elevation. Plant is an annual herbaceous vine found, not only in Palos Verdes, but across California and much of North America.
Cuscuta pentagona (Convolvulaceae or Cuscutaceae): five angled dodder, western field dodder, golden dodder, witch's hair
The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.