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.

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 ...

Plant it and they will come. Believe it or not, it really is that simple when it comes to butterfly host plants. Scatter dill seeds among your lovely pink cosmos, and soon you’ll see swallowtails.

Researchers have investigated how the parasitic dodder Cuscuta australis controls flower formation. They showed that the parasite eavesdrops on the flowering signals of its host plants in order to ...

Balanophora shed one third of its genes as it evolved into an uber-streamlined parasitic plant, according to new research by a team led by scientists at BGI Research, and including botanists from the ...