The doddler has virtually no chlorophyll, the essential pigment used to capture the energy of sunlight in photosynthesis, so it cannot produce it's own food. Mature forms lack roots, and so cannot absorb nutrients from the soil. Instead, this vicious plant winds it's thread-like stem around other plants, and somehow feeds on their nturients. It looks like the doddler is strangling the plant, which is why it is also known as 'strangleweed'.
Orange toddler stems. Image from http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/chenpe/WOLF/2007_06_16/
This lifestyle essentially makes the toddler a heterotrophic plant! To a biologist, that sounds insane! Plants just keep surprising!
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