Parasitic plant

As Phytoparasitismus ( παρά ancient Greek para " beside", σιτεῖν sitein " fatten, feed " ) refers to the parasitic resource acquisition by plants. You acquire some vital resources by means of a host plant, often used this supply of nutrients.

In Phytoparasiten two groups can be distinguished, the parasitic flowering plants and the mykoheterotrophen plants.

The parasitic flowering plants parasitize directly by means of special organs ( haustoria ) to other flowering plants. They can be further subdivided according to criteria, namely

• Physiologically according to the extent of chlorophyll loss in

• Still green, capable of photosynthesis semi parasite ( hemiparasite; Example: Mistletoe) and
• Largely loose leaf green full parasites ( holoparasites, for example: summer Wurzen )

• Or anatomical- functional according to the type of parasitized host tissue in

• Vascular or Xylemparasiten (examples: Mistletoe, shed Wurzen ) and
• Sieve tubes or Phloemparasiten (examples: Silk, Summer Wurzen )

• Or morphologically according to the situation of the affected host institutions in

• Shoot parasites (example: mistletoe, dodder ) and
• Root parasites (example: dandruff sausages, summer Wurzen ).

Previously it was assumed that the half- parasite vascular parasites that full parasites in contrast are Siebröhrenparasiten. However, the two pairs of terms are not entirely congruent, as there is full parasites like the scales of sausages, which nevertheless tap only the xylem of their host plants, and on the other half of parasites such as mistletoe can also Phloemkontakt. In addition, the boundary between hemi- and holoparasites is not as clear-cut as the definition suggests. For example, the Alps throat ( Tozzia alpina ) lives in its first stages of development underground as full parasites, but becomes green after breaking through the surface of the earth and feeds from now as a semi- parasites.

The mykoheterotrophen plants ( MHP) have emerged from Mykorrhizapflanzen where the mutualistic symbiosis has shifted towards parasitism. They received from their fungal partners no longer water and nutrient salts, but also organic carbon compounds. The mycorrhizal fungi of mykoheterotrophen plants can be saprotroph or parasitic. In many (perhaps most ) cases, but it is mycorrhizal fungi that form arbuscular mycorrhizae ecto- or. Your symbiotic partners (forest trees) are the original source of the forwarded by the fungus to the plant mykoheterotrophe carbon.

Even with the mykoheterotrophen plants there are chlorophyll ( vollmykotrophe ) species such as the spruce asparagus and Neottia and species that do not have chlorophyll and only partially mykoheterotroph ( PMHP ) or mixotrophically (Examples: White helleborine, Small-leaved helleborine, Limodorum, Korallenwurz ).

Swell

• Parasitology