In the damp understory of forests in Taiwan, mainland Japan, and Okinawa, a plant called Balanophora can fool you at first glance. Its knobby flower stalks look more like a mushroom than a flowering ...

Thismia selangorensis]]> ...

Jim Westwood, professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science, examines dodder, a parasitic plant with a covert weaponry system. Research at Virginia Tech and Penn State that has revealed ...

A parasitic plant with potentially poisonous berries might not sound like something that would boost your Christmas decorations to the next level. But, botanically speaking, that’s what mistletoe is.

The world’s only wild black-furred rabbit has a very important job — distributing seeds for a parasitic plant. By Jason Bittel On the Amami Islands of Japan, wonder blooms from a nibble and some ...

Balanophora plants (a) B. japonica (left and center: Kyushu, Japan; right: Taiwan), (b) B. mutinoides (Taiwan), (c) B. tobiracola (from left: Okinawa, Japan; Taiwan ...

Parasites abound throughout the natural world. While not all of them cause the host's death, this newly discovered parasitic ciliate dissolves and destroys common West Coast crabs. According to the ...

Sorghum crops in sub-Saharan Africa suffer heavy losses from the parasitic plant witchweed (Striga hermonthica). A new study shows how soil microbes can help protect sorghum from this pest and could ...

A new study has uncovered the complex genetic interaction between root-knot nematodes and tomato plants, revealing how these microscopic parasites manipulate plant genomes to induce gall formation. By ...