parasite weeds are the most important yield reducing factors, and among them dodder (cuscuta campestris l.) is an obligate parasite of many plant families. in order to find a suitable biocontrol agent for dodder a study was conducted based on a randomized complete design with four replications at research greenhouse of faculty of agriculture, ferdowsi university of mashhad, iran during 2007-200...

introduction dodder (cascuta campestris yuncker) is an annual parasitic plant from the convolvulaceae family (mishra et al., 2007). it wraps around many adjacent dicot and a few monocot plants, penetrates in their vascular tissue and exploits photosynthates, nutrients and water (lanini & kogan, 2005). consequently, the growth, vigor and production of the host plant will be severely reduced (nad...

dormancy of eastern dodder and african rocket seeds makes the controlof them very difficult in orchards and farms. in order to study the effective factors in dormancy breaking of these two weeds species, a factorialexperiment based on crd with three replications was conducted at the research laboratory of birjand faculty of agriculture in 2008 and 2009. treatments were: control, soaking in sulf...

Phytoplasma PoiBI is responsible for free branching in poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima Wild. ex. Klotzsch). In this study, PoiBI was transmitted by dodder from poinsettia to crown-of-thorns (E. milii Des Moulins) in one out of ≈100 attempts, whereas grafting transmission was unsuccessful. PoiBI was shown to be viable in E. milii, as it was detected in the recipient plant and in its cuttings o...

It is generally correct to think of plants as the hearty autotrophs, gamely harnessing photons to make food and existing perennially (or annually) at the bottom of the food chain. However, thousands of plant species have lost the ability to feed themselves and have become adapted, instead, to live as parasites of other plants. Not surprisingly, these parasitic plants, especially witchweed root ...