#balanophora — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #balanophora, aggregated by home.social.
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#Parasitic plant convinces hosts to grow into its own flesh—it's also an extreme example of genome shrinkage https://phys.org/news/2023-09-parasitic-convinces-hosts-fleshit-extreme.html
#Balanophora #genomes display massively #ConvergentEvolution with other extreme #holoparasites and provide novel insights into parasite–host interactions https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-023-01517-7
"unlike some other #ParasiticPlants, Balanophora induces the vascular system of their host plant to grow into a tuber, forming a unique underground organ with mixed host-parasite tissue."
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Endangered #Amami rabbit disperses seeds for non-photosynthetic plant https://phys.org/news/2023-01-endangered-amami-rabbit-disperses-seeds.html
Researchers had previously been puzzled about how the seeds of the #Balanophora #plants, with some of the smallest fruits among angiosperms, were dispersed. B. yuwanensis is a host-specific obligate parasite. Efficient seed transportation likely requires the seed to be deposited near the roots of a host. The #AmamiRabbit may facilitate this through digging, defecating underground in burrows.