Parasitic Plant

Ok, I kind of covered this parasite earlier this year. In that post, I explained that Mistletoe is a hemi-parasite (only partially dependent on its host for survival) and that the family represents one of the nine times that parasitism evolved in the plant kingdom. I also mentioned that unlike most parasites, parasitic plants are keystone species, where their ecological impact is disproportionate relative to their abundance. But I didn't talk about the many varieties of mistletoe, and this time, I'd like to focus on one: dwarf misteletoe, of the genus Arceuthobium. Recently, the dwarf…

So I've had unicellular parasites, metazoan parasites, even fungi parasites featured every week here. But there is one kind of parasite I haven't talked about: parasitic plants. The classic example of a parasitic plant is the ever-loved Christmas favorite: Mistletoe. "Mistletoe" is actually a fairly large group of hemi-parasitic plants in the order Santalales. They're called "hemi-parasites" because, in fact, they can produce some of their own food and nutrients, and aren't 100% dependent on their hosts for survival. Mistletoe is dependent upon birds to spread from host to host. The berries…