South Africa video blog - 2, part 2

The wind wasn't quite so bad in the shelter of the sand dune. In this episode I excavate Hyobanche for collecting the host roots that are attached to the secondary haustoria (organs of attachment) along the rhizome. Hyobanche is a holoparasite, which means it relies on its host plant(s) for all of its water, mineral nutrients and carbon. It's the only parasitic plant I know that has haustorial attachments from leaf bractlets along a rhizome. It's quite an interesting little plant.

I'm so amazed, every time I see it, how much biomass there is underground. All you see above ground is the inflorescence when the plant is flowering. However, there is probably 100X or more of the plant underground, which is not seen until an excavation is done.

BTW - the primary host for this species is Metalasia. I said Elytropappus in the video, but that's because my brain is still on east coast time in the states.