Dodder – a fatal parasitic weed of pigeonpea

Abstract

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh] is a hardy, widely adapted and drought tolerant crop with a large temporal variation (90–300 days) for maturity. These traits allow its cultivation in a wide range of environments and cropping systems (Saxena 2008). The average productivity of pigeonpea is quite low due to several biotic and abiotic stresses. Being a rainy season crop, it is severely infested with weeds. Weeds mostly compete with the pigeonpea for resources and reduce crop yield and quality. Instances where weeds directly parasitize pigeonpea are only a few and the information is not well-documented. Kotasthane et al. (1980) reported Cuscuta infestation in an F2 population of pigeonpea derived from a double cross, (‘4726’ × ‘No. 148’) × (‘C 11’ × ‘4780’) for the first time in Central India (Jabalpur). The obligate stem parasitic species was identified as Cuscuta hyalina. They also observed that pigeonpea plants attacked by the parasite were underdeveloped with a tendency to dry prematurely. The present article reports pigeonpea infestation by the field dodder (Cuscuta campestris L.), which is a different species of Cuscuta with the same parasitic behaviour.