Through pollination and feeding on all parts of plants, insects influence which plants thrive, which struggle, and even ...

In the damp understory of forests in Taiwan, mainland Japan, and Okinawa, a plant called Balanophora can fool you at first ...

Some plants bend the rules of plant life so far that they barely resemble plants at all. Balanophora is one of them - a ...

A weird-looking parasitic plant has discarded all its photosynthesis machinery – and nevertheless has found a way to thrive.

Missouri animal health experts warn of a potential reintroduction of a flesh-eating fly in the state within a year or two.

This plant, called a fairy lantern, is a parasite that steals all its energy and nutrients from mycorrhizal fungi that dwell ...

From morning glories spiraling up fence posts to grape vines corkscrewing through arbors, twisted growth is a problem-solving ...

“Many people equate plants with photosynthesis, yet Balanophora illustrates that being a plant does not require being green,” ...

New species of the plants are still being discovered, and their parasitic biology is being probed for potential cancer ...

Balanophora plants represent an extreme example of this shift. They do not produce their own food through photosynthesis but ...

Balanophora is a plant that abandoned photosynthesis long ago and now lives entirely as a parasite on tree roots, hidden in ...

A plant that looks like a fungus, lives like a parasite, and clones itself in the dark—Balanophora may be one of evolution’s ...