Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Balanophora shed one third of its genes as it evolved into a very streamlined parasitic plant. Balanophora is a parasitic plant ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American Being a parasite isn’t all free drinks and ...

A dodder plant begins its life looking like a tapeworm. The tiny plant, which will never grow leaves or roots, elongates in a spindly spiral. Round and round it swirls, searching for a host plant.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. 'Balanophora' species are parasitic plants that live underground and emerge above ground only during the flowering season, and ...

In our region there are a few fully parasitic plants, totally dependent on other plants for carbon, water, and nutrients. Some of them are not common, but we sometimes see them along the trails. They ...

Parasites are the ultimate moochers, earning a living by stealing hard-earned nutrients from their hosts. Now, a new study in plants suggests that parasites sometimes give something back: foreign ...

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 ...

Parasitic plants do not haphazardly flail about looking for a host but sense volatile chemicals produced by other plants and identify potential hosts by their emissions, according to a team of Penn ...

Some parasitic plants can ‘steal’ genetic information from their hosts through horizontal gene transfer, which they then use to make themselves a better parasite. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a ...

Using the model Orobanchaceae parasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum, scientists from Nagoya University and other research institutes from Japan have discerned the molecular mechanisms underlying ...

It’s a never-ending cycle of “Night of the Living Dead-meets-Dracula” in the world of green and leafy things. By Veronique Greenwood A mustard plant infected with a certain parasite grows strangely, ...