Balanophora shed one third of its genes as it evolved into a very streamlined parasitic plant. Balanophora is a parasitic plant found in tropical and temperate regions in Asia and tropical Africa and ...

If you happen to come across plants of the Balanophoraceae family in a corner of a forest, you might easily mistake them for fungi growing around tree roots. Their mushroom-like structures are ...

Dodder is a parasitic plant that attaches itself to wild plants, including California sage scrub. It is classified as an ...

Parasitic weeds are ruthless freeloaders, stealing nutrients from crops and devastating harvests. But what if farmers could trick these invaders into self-destructing? Scientists at UC Riverside think ...

Strigolactones are a class of carotenoid‐derived phytohormones that play a pivotal role in regulating plant architecture and mediating interactions with both symbiotic organisms and parasitic plants.

Have you seen that orange thread-like stuff draped over the top of plants in a salt marsh? It’s a parasitic annual plant called dodder, Cuscuta species. Dodder is capable of photosynthesis, but it ...

Galls are small, tumor-like growths formed on plants that act as incubators for oak gall wasp larvae. Parasitic wasps often lay their own eggs in these galls, which later feed on their victims. North ...

At first glance, Orobanche ramosa looks like an interesting blossoming plant, one that could add a unique flair to flower arrangements. But it’s a parasitic weed that attaches to roots, sucks out ...

Balanophora shed one third of its genes as it evolved into a streamlined parasitic plant -- an extreme degree of genome shrinkage even among parasites. Along the way this subtropical plant developed ...