Although we are used to hearing that plants make their own food thanks to the absorption of nutrients by the roots and the process of photosynthesis with chlorophyll, this is not entirely correct. Although most do, not all vegetables are autotrophs, there are some plants that take advantage of the effort made by other plants to obtain food and survive, such as parasitic plants.
From Ecologist Verde we want you to know in depth what are parasitic plants, what are the types that exist and their characteristics. Don't miss this article to know everything about them!
Parasitic plants: definition and characteristics
To explain the characteristics of parasitic plants, we will start by defining what parasitism is:
What is parasitism
It is important to begin to know the meaning of parasitism. Parasitism occurs when an animal, plant, fungus, virus or bacterium (the parasite) takes advantage of another living being (host) by extracting from it the food it needs to live.
Definition and characteristics of parasitic plants
Unlike animals, plants are autotrophs, or at least that's what we've been taught, right? Well the truth is that there are certain cases in which plants do not make their food, at least not quite, that is, they are heterotrophic or partially heterotrophic. This is the case, for example, of parasitic plants.
Lacking chlorophyll, many parasitic plants cannot carry out photosynthesis, which leads them to feed on water and nutrients from other plants. There are many species of parasitic plants, approximately 4,100 species from 19 different families and most have very striking colors and shapes.
In addition to the total or partial lack of chlorophyll, these types of plants have other changes associated with their structure and roots, such as the presence of haustoria, or what is the same, sucking roots that penetrate the host plant and become They connect with its xylem and / or with its phloem (conductive tissues that transport the sap and the nutrients and sustain the structure of the plant).
Parasitic plant types and examples
There is a great diversity of parasitic plants, those that need their host to survive (obligate parasite), those that could live independently of the host (facultative parasite), those that settle on the stems of the parasitized plant (stem parasite) , or those that do the same in the roots (root parasite). However, there are two large important groups of parasitic plants, holoparasites and hemiparasites, which are defined by their degree of parasitism:
Holoparasites
- Complete parasitism.
- Absence of photosynthesis.
- Plants with yellowish colors due to the lack of chlorophyll.
- Feeding through other living organisms.
- Examples: el jopo (Orobanche sp.), the dodder (Cuscuta sp, like the cappuccino beard plant or Dodder epithymum) Y Cytinus sp., What Cytinus hypocistis.
Hemiparasites
- Partial parasitism.
- It can carry out photosynthesis.
- Plants with greenish colors due to the presence of chlorophyll.
- Food through other living organisms and also by photosynthesis.
- Examples: mistletoe (Viscum sp) and Thesium sp.
Example of a holoparasitic plant: the orobancáceas
The family of the orobancáceasOrobanchaceae) They are parasitic plants without leaves specialized in specific plant species, such as thyme, ivy or ginesta and that belong to the order of Lamiales. There are more than 200 species of orobancáceas widely distributed geographically, being present in almost all the temperate regions of the planet, except the area of South America and some parts of Australia and New Zealand.
In the superficial part of these scaly plants is where the biological phases of the reproductive stage, flowering and the production and dispersal of seeds take place. The rest of the biological activity takes place underground, where the roots of the host parasitize.
Some examples of parasitic plants that are holoparasites and they are within the family of the orobancáceas are:
- Orobanche hederae
- Orobanche nana
- Orobanche amethystea
- Orobanche alba
- Orobanche ballotae
- Orobanche cernua
- Orobanche clausonis
- Orobanche crenata
- Orobanche foetida Poir. var. foetida
- Orobanche gracilis
- Orobanche haenseleri
- Orobanche latisquama
Another example of a root parasitic plant is the Langsdorffia hypogaea, which we can see in the cover image of this article.
Example of a hemiparasitic plant: mistletoes and other species
The mistletoe (Viscum sp) is considered one of the parasitic plants of treesMore specifically, a semi-parasitic plant of apple trees, poplars and pines, coming from the family of Santaláceas, and that can cause great destruction in the extensions of land. Mistletoe, like a plague, devastates wherever it passes and is difficult to eliminate.
At the same time that it photosynthesizes like autotrophic plants, mistletoe also feeds on water and nutrients from the tree to which it adheres. This whitish fruit vegetable is native to Europe, Asia and America and, in addition to being a typical Christmas plant, it is currently used in natural medicine. Finally, it should be noted that there are around 1,300 species of mistletoe on the planet.
Other examples of parasitic plants within hemiparasites there are:
- Arceuthobium oxycedri
- Bartsia trixago
- Osyris alba
- Osyris quadripartite
- Parentucellia latifolia
- Thesium humifusum
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