The secretive world of endoparasitic plants
The secretive world of endoparasitic plants
Learn about several different species of parasitic plants.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Transcript
Did you know there are parasitic plants?
Endoparasitic plants are flowering plants that live entirely inside their hosts.
These plants cannot photosynthesize and rely exclusively on their host plants for food.
They use specialized organs to penetrate the host tissues and form a vascular union.
Endoparasitic plants lack roots and leaves so you often don’t know they’re there until they emerge from the host to flower.
Although its flowers are enormous, the corpse flower Rafflesia is an endoparasite and lives within certain woody vines in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Other endoparasites, known as stemsuckers, somehow coordinate the emergence of their tiny flower to help with pollinating.
Endoparasitism is very rare in the plant kingdom, and scientists are still studying how and why these plants evolved this way.
Endoparasitic plants are flowering plants that live entirely inside their hosts.
These plants cannot photosynthesize and rely exclusively on their host plants for food.
They use specialized organs to penetrate the host tissues and form a vascular union.
Endoparasitic plants lack roots and leaves so you often don’t know they’re there until they emerge from the host to flower.
Although its flowers are enormous, the corpse flower Rafflesia is an endoparasite and lives within certain woody vines in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Other endoparasites, known as stemsuckers, somehow coordinate the emergence of their tiny flower to help with pollinating.
Endoparasitism is very rare in the plant kingdom, and scientists are still studying how and why these plants evolved this way.