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 ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A weird-looking parasitic plant has discarded all its photosynthesis machinery – and nevertheless has found a way to thrive. A new ...

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 ...

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.

Not all leafy plants are green. Some of them get all their nutrients by stealing them from other species, and lack chlorophyll. Many of these parasitic plants make their connection with the hosts ...

Parasitic plants are notorious agricultural pests that drain nutrients from crops and cause economic losses of more than USD 1 billion due to yield losses every year. Yet these plants almost never ...

Sneaky parasitic weeds may be able to steal genes from the plants they are attacking and then use those genes against the host plant, according to a team of scientists. In a study, researchers ...

Plant-parasitic nematodes are microscopic organisms that affect most crops, whether in tropical or temperate regions. Control methods currently rely on application of chemical nematicide dressings, ...

Some parasitic plants steal genetic material from their host plants and use the stolen genes to more effectively siphon off the host's nutrients. A new study reveals that the parasitic plant dodder ...

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