What's New on the Parasitic Plant Connection?

To help visitors to this web site keep tabs on the ongoing changes, I've added this page which will give a "running tab" of the significant updates.

October, 2006

New Photographs.  Has it really been over one year since I last updated this page!  The PPC has continued to grow, mainly owing to the addition of photographs from numerous contributors (see below).  I especially want to acknowledge Robin Foster (Neotropical Live Plant Photos), Rusty Russell (Plant Image Collection, Smithsonian) who made available photos of parasitic plants from R. A. Howard and G. A. Cooper, as well as Jeffry Morowetz who contributed a number of photos of Orobanchaceae.  The "Praising Flowers" website in Japan as well as the "Wildflower Romantic" website in China were excellent sources of Asian parasitic plant photos.  My apologies for not being able to acknowledge the actual photographers from these sites (either they were not given or I was not able to find and translate the information). Instead of listing the new photographs by family, I have changed the format to an alphabetical listing by person or website (when the photographer is not indicated).

• Amico, G.: Ligaria cuneifolia.
• Archibald, J.: Alectra capensis, Harveya speciosa.
• Aubert, S.: Quinchamalium chilense, Tristerix aphyllus.
• Bannister, P.: Korthalsella lindsayi, Korthalsella salicornioides.
• Barcelona, J.: Rafflesia manillana.
• Barthelat, F.: Balanophora abbreviata, Christisonia species.
• Betz, H.: Cladocolea species.
• Boufford, D. E.: Pterygiella nigrescens.
• Brisse, H.: Cytinus sanguineus.
• Calvert, G.: Decaisnina signata.
• Colwell, A.: Orobanche fasciculata.
• Cooper, G. A.: Krameria erecta, Krameria grayi.
• Douzet, R.: Arjona patagonica.
• Ekpe, P.: Englerina lecardii, Opilia amentacea Phragmanthera species, Striga brachycalyx, Tapinanthus bangwensis, Ximenia americana.
• Fischer, E. (painting): Sieversandreas madagascarianus.
• Fleischmann, A. S.: Thesium bavarum, Thesium rostratum.
• Foster, R.: Aetanthus nodosus, Cassytha filiformis, Cladocolea archeri, Cuscuta obtusiflora, Dendrophthora clavata, Dendrophthora elliptica, Dendrophthora lueri, Dendrophthora pauciflora, Dendrophthora species, Gaiadendron punctatum, Lophophytum mirabile, Ombrophytum violaceum, Oryctanthus spicatus, Phoradendron chrysocladon, Phoradendron quadrangulare, Phthirusa species, Psittacanthus cucularis.
• Glatzel, G.: Macrosolen cochinchinensis, Macrosolen parasiticus.
• Gonzáles Lozada, W.: Ligaria cuneifolia, Tristerix corymbosus, Tristerix verticillatus.
• Grau, A.: Ligaria cuneifolia.
• Hammer, R.: Phoradendron rubrum, Schoepfia schreberi.
• Hawthorne, W. D.: Strombosia pustulata.
• Howard, R. A.: Agelanthus zizyphifolius, Amylotheca insularum, Arceuthobium bicarinatum, Buttonia hildebrandtii, Dendropemon haitiensis, Englerina woodfordioides, Exocarpos luteolus, Exocarpos neocaledonicus, Korthalsella disticha, Lathraea squamaria, Nuytsia floribunda, Phoradendron crassifolium, Phoradendron hexastichum, Phoradendron trinervium, Psittacanthus martinicensis, Santalum freycinetianum var. freycinetianum, Santalum acuminatum, Santalum haleakalae, Scleropyrum maingayai, Scurrula parasitica, Thesium triste, Viscum minimum.
• Hughes, C. E.: Agondandra racemosa.
• Intes, A.: Nesogenes euphrasioides.
• Irwin, M.: Viscum cuneifolium, Bakerella species.
• Kennedy, H.: Muellerina eucalyptoides.
• Korsun, O.: Boschniakia rossica, Cymbaria dahurica, Euphrasia pectinata, Odontites vulgaris.
• Kuijt, J.: Tristerix peruvianus.
• Larsson, S.: Socratina keraudreniana.
• Malek, L.: Tristerix longebracteatus.
• Mathews, S.: Hachettea austro-caledonica.
• Mathiasen, R.: Psittacanthus angustifolius, Psittacanthus pinicola.
• Meijer, W.: Balanophora latisepala.
• Moran, R.: Phoradendron brachystachyum.
• Morawetz, J.: Alectra dolichocalyx, Alectra fruticosa, Alectra humbertii, Alectra orobanchoiswa, Alectra rigida, Alectra sessiliflora, Buchnera species, Harveya pulchra, Harveya speciosa, Sopubia ramosa, Sopubia species, Striga bilabiata, Striga forbesii.
• Nichols, G.: Ximenia americana var. caffra.
• Nuñez M.: Tristerix corymbosus.
• Perdeck, A.: Rhamphicarpa herzfediana, Rhamphicarpa montana.
• Poopath, M.: Macrosolen platyphyllus.
• Prieditis, N.: Macrosolen melintangensis.
• Read, M.: Lamourouxia virgata.
• Roldán, F. J.: Tripodanthus belmirensis.
• Savela, M.: Parentucella viscosa.
• Spjut, R.: Opilia celtidifolia.
• Troncoso, A. Tristerix verticillatus.
• Vargas, R.  Tristerix verticillatus.
• Wanke, S.: Cynomorium coccineum.
• Wiens, D.: Korthalsella lindsayi, Korthalsella opuntia, Korthalsella salicornioides.
 •Wursten, B.: Cycnium adonense ssp. montanum, Cycnium tubulosum, Globimetula mweroensis, Tapinanthus oleifolius.
• Wylie, S. & J. McComb: Pilostyles hamiltonii.

• Alibaba.com web site: Coula edulis.
• Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands: Nesogenes rotensis.
• Impronte Digitali website, Italy: Tozzia alpina.
• Meeting of Miyakonojo valley plant lovers (Japan): Aeginetia indica, Melampyrum laxum, Mitrastema yamamotoi, Phacellanthus tubiflorus, Phtheirospermum japonicum.
• Missouri Botanical Garden: Physocalyx aurantiacus.
• National Parks Board, Singapore: Strombosia javanica.
• New Zealand Plant Conservation Network: Peraxilla tetrapetala , Tupeia antarctica, Peraxilla colensoi, Ileostylus micranthus, Dactylanthus taylori.
• "Praising Flowers" website, Japan: Centranthera chevalieri, Euphrasia hatijoensis, Euphrasia insignis idzuensis, Euphrasia kiso alpina, Euphrasia microphylla, Lathraea japonica, Melampyrum laxum laxum, Melampyrum roseum japonicum, Mitrastemon yamamotoi, Pedicularis chamissonis var. japonica, Pedicularis chamissonis var. japonica forma rostrata, Pedicularis chamissonis var. rebunensis, Pedicularis keiskei, Pedicularis resupinata, Pedicularis resupinata var. microphylla, Pedicularis schistostegia, Pedicularis verticillata, Pedicularis yezoensis, Phacellanthus tubiflorus, Siphonostegia chinensis, Siphonostegia laeta.
• Redbook Sevin. Russian website of biodiversity: Mannagettaea hummelii.
• University of Maryland: Lamourouxia xalapensis.
• University of Oxford Environmental Change Institute: Pentarhopalopilia species.
• "Wildflower Romantic" website (China): Cymbaria dahurica, Melampyrum roseum, Pedicularis chinensis, Pedicularis spicata, Pedicularis striata, Phtheirospermum japonicum, Siphonostegia chinensis.

New Pages. Over the past year I have added a couple of new series of pages.  One of them is "The Strange andWonderful Myco-heterotrophs".  Producing this page was prompted by numerous questions from folks asking about this or that "parasitic plant"; many of these turned out not to be an haustorial parasites but a myco-heterotrophs.  Also over the past year I have constructed a page listing "Translations of Parasitic Plant Literature."  These are mostly older works that appeared in languages other than English.  With the help of OCR software, translation utilities such as Altavista Babblefish, some good dictionaries, and assistance from colleagues, I have been able to produce these translations and make them available as pdf files on the PPC.

Family Reorganizations.  Some may have noticed that I have changed the circumscription of families within the sandalwood order, Santalales.  The first "family" that was long overdue for an overhaul was Olacaceae which was split into several monophyletic and distinct units, such as Schoepfiaceae.  We now have molecular data that will result in a similar reorganization of "Santalaceae", but the web page reorganization must wait until the relevant manuscripts are submitted. The plan is to eventually arrange the enire PPC according to phylogenetic relationships.

August, 2005

 

The phylogenetic position of Cynomorium (Cynomoriaceae) has been determined, and it's not related to Balanophoraceae! See paper by Nickrent et al. (2005) in BMC Evolutionary Biology.

For a PDF file of this article, click HERE. For the full text online version, go HERE.

New Photographs. There have also been a number of additional photographs added to the PPC. Thanks especially to Joel McNeal and Andreas Fleischmann for their generous contributions! And although he did not take all of them, Chris Randle kindly assembled for the PPC a number of photos of Harveya from other photographers.

Apodanthaceae

Convolvulaceae

Cynomoriaceae

Cytinaceae

Balanophoraceae

Loranthaceae

Olacaceae

Opiliaceae

Orobanchaceae

Santalaceae

February, 2005

New Photographs. Has it really been 22 months since I last updated this page? It's embarrasing but true. As usual, the major changes have been the addition of numerous wonderful photographs, summarized below. What can I say other than a heartfelt THANK YOU to all the people who have helped make the Parasitic Plant Connection a great source of information on these plants!

Balanophoraceae

Convolvulaceae (Cuscuta)

Cytinaceae

Hydnoraceae

Lauraceae

Lennoaceae

Loranthaceae

Misodendraceae

Mitrastemonaceae

Olacaceae

Opiliaceae

Orobanchaceae

Rafflesiaceae

Santalaceae

Viscaceae

Other Items:

Pierre Guertin has continued to supply the PPC web site with photographs of stamps that display a parasitic plant. Thanks Pierre!

April, 2003

New Photographs. The number of photographs added since last October is staggering! My apologies if I have forgotten to credit everyone. Given the number of new images, I will list them alphabetically by family:

Balanophoraceae

Convolvulaceae (Cuscuta)

Loranthaceae

Misodendraceae

Olacaceae

Opiliaceae

Orobanchaceae

Rafflesiaceae

Santalaceae

October, 2002

New Photographs. Thanks to the following people who have contributed excellent photographs for the PPC:

Several photographs I took while in Queensland Australia (June) and while doing research with the Forest Research Institute in Papua New Guinea (July) have now been posted. Most of these are of Loranthaceae in the genera Amyema, Amylotheca, Decaisnina, Diplatia, Distrianthes (herbarium sample), Lysiana, Macrosolen, Papuanthes (herbarium specimen), and Sogerianthe. I also photographed Balanophora fungosa (Balanophoraceae, Queensland) and Dendromyza spp. (Santalaceae, PNG).

June, 2002

NEW SPECIES OF RAFFLESIA! No, this is not a practical joke, it's true. A new species of the "Queen of the Parasites" has been discovered in the Philippines. The event has already attracted scores of tourists and has been covered by newspapers and television. This just goes to show how poorly known and how valuable tropical rainforest habitats are. Check out the photographs HERE.

New Photographs. I have posted a number of new links to photographs and line drawings of hemiparasitic and holoparasitic Orobanchaceae. Many of these are links to the TROPICOS image library at Missouri Botanical Garden. Others were discovered by searching the web. There's still ca. 30 genera of hemiparasites with no photographs. Let me know if you can "fill in a gap"!

May, 2002

New Photographs. Paul Hiepko (Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, Berlin-Dahlem) shared some of his excellent photographs of Opiliaceae, thereby more than tripling the number posted for this family! Thanks so much for your generosity Paul. Gerald Schneeweisse (Dept. of Systematics and Evolution of Higher Plants, Inst. of Botany and Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna) donated pictures of two species of Orobanche from Greece.

February, 2002

New Photographs. Michael Hopkins kindly provided digital images of parasitic plants (e.g. Loranthaceae) found in the Reserva Forestal Aldolfo Ducke which is near the city of Manaus, Brazil. Some of these photos were published in the book "Flora da Reserva Ducke" by Ribeiro, Hopkins, Vicentini et al. (1999, INPA-DFID). In case you haven't seen it, this is one of the most incredible documentations of a tropical flora that has ever been done. The book contains literally thousands of high-quality color images of neotropical plants. You can learn more about the Ducke Reserve by visiting the following website: http://curupira.inpa.gov.br/projetos/ducke. [note the name Curupira is a rare genus in Olacaceae!]

December, 2001

New Photographs. Several people have contributed marvelous photographs! These include:

Mistletoe Symposium. An announcement is now posted for the upcoming symposium on mistletoes (part of the International Canopy Conference) to be held in Cairns, Australia, June 23-28, 2002. Click HERE for info.

July, 2001

New Photographs. Albert Blarer (University of Zürich) visited Zimbabwe and was able to photograph and collect Berlinianche aethiopica (Apodanthaceae or Rafflesiaceae s. lat). He has kindly allowed some of these photographs to be posted on the PPC. Visit his site HERE to see more.

September, 2000

New Photographs. John Reynolds (Portland Oregon) kindly donated several excellent images of Chilean Santalales, such as Desmaria mutabilis, Tristerix aphyllus (Loranthaceae), Quinchamalium (Santalaceae), and Misodendrum (Misodendraceae). Have a look!

DWARF MISTLETOES: BIOLOGY, PATHOLOGY, AND SYSTEMATICS is now available in its entirety on the web! Thanks to Dan Huebner and Brian Geils. Click HERE to go there.

July, 2000

Parasitic Plants as Food. Indeed, humans have "turned the tables" on some parasitic plants by using them as food items. This page lists (in table format) some examples.

June, 2000

New Photographs. Several new photographs have been added to the PPC:

Updates to Address List. Several new people have been listed on the "Names and Addresses of Parasitic Plant Specialists" page. Please inform me if your address/email has changed and I will update the listing.

Controlling Mistletoe. I get a fair number of inquiries (via email) about how to control mistletoe. To save myself replying to every separate one, I have posted a new page called "Controlling Mistletoe (Phoradendron)".

August & September, 1999

New Photographs. A number of new parasitic plant photographs have been added (or links made) to the listing of genera on each family index page. These came mainly from:

Family Index Page Appearance. The listings of genera that appear on each family index page now have each genus set out to the left in a bold, red heading to help with organization and navigation.

Abstracts from the IBC. All the abstracts from the two parasitic plant symposia at the recent IBC are included as well as any other papers or posters that dealt with parasitic plants.

7th. International Parasitic Weed Symposium. The announcement for this symposium was added to the main index page.

New Names. A number of new names have been added to the Parasitic Plant Specialist List.

Cuscuta Control. My most frequent inquiry from the general public relates to Cuscuta (dodder). For this reason, I have added a page discussing chemical control which also provides some WWWeb links.

SIUC / College of Science / Parasitic Plant Connection
URL: http://www.parasiticplants.siu.edu/WhatsNew.html
Last updated: 11-Oct-06 / dln