Quoting from this site:
The vine-like dodder doesn’t have roots and cannot produce its own food. If it doesn’t find a host within a few days of germinating, it dies.
When it germinates and the shoot finds a victim, it begins growing in a coil around the host plant. It inserts a peg-like tendril into that plant and feeds off it.
Does it ever knock you on your ass, how amazingly beautiful and varied life on this planet is?