It looks like a massive amount of fluorescent Silly String has exploded onto parts of the marshland at Huntley Meadows Park, but I believe it is in reality a parasitic plant known as dodder. Early yesterday afternoon a White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) found it to be so tasty that it was willing to ignore the people passing on the boardwalk less than ten feet away.
In taking this photo, I did something that I rarely do—I used the 150mm setting of my 150-600mm telephoto zoom lens. The deer was so close that I could capture only its head and shoulders, even with the lens at its widest setting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
You can see its little tongue sticking out… obviously tasty!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that plant. I have been hiking when deer have gotten close or let me pass pretty close to them. Maybe they know the guy with the camera is safe.
what a great photo Mike!
Fabulous!
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Thanks, Penny Ann.
It’s interesting that just in the past week or two the dodder has exploded here. There had been some small stands of it, but now it’s thick along railroad tracks, ditches, and so on. I had to laugh at that photo. It looks like the deer’s standing in a gigantic plate of spaghetti.
It’s amazing how fast the dodder appears. It’s almost like it appears overnight.
What a great shot! I love that you captured the inquisitive tongue. I’ve never heard of dodder or seen anything like this plant. How fascinating.
Thanks, Laura. Dodder is kind of a creepy plant–it attaches to a plant and inserts itself into the vascular system of the host. I’m no scientist, so I am not sure how that works, but it sounds like some horror/science fiction movies that I have seen.
It does sound like something out of a sci-fi horror, like sneakier Triffids.
That’s a great shot!
Dodder is a parasitic plant so the deer can eat as much as it wants. I never knew deer liked it. That must be why it suddenly disappears.
Thanks. I never knew that deer would consume dodder, but this deer walked right into the midst of it and was pulling off sections of it to eat.