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Asked by to Amelia, Izzy, Sarah on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Isabel Webb answered on 19 Mar 2014:
Yes they can. Plants can also act as parasites on other plants!
Mistletoe isn’t just interesting at Christmas. Mistletoe doesn’t make roots and live in the ground. Instead it grows on the branches of other trees. It sticks tubes into the branch and taps into the vessels carrying water, nutrients and sugars. The mistletoe steals the food to help it live.
The Rafflesia flower is also a parasite. The flower spends almost all it’s life growing inside a vine and stealing the vine’s food and water. It only emerges from the vine to get pollinated and release it’s seeds.
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Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 20 Mar 2014:
Yes plants can get parasites, and these parasites can be many different species!
Plant parasites are often fungi. For example some fungi grow on tree roots. They burrow in and take out water and nutrients from the root. Sometimes these fungi take over the whole root system, which causes the tree to die, because all of its nutrients and water in the roots are going to the fungi instead of the tree!
There are many species of plant which are actually parasites to other plant species! Izzy has mentioned mistletoe and also the rafflesia. There is another common parasite called the Dodder which comes from California. This plant is often called witches hair as it looks like lots of long golden strands. This plant is not able to photosynthesise, so can’t make its own energy. This means it has to drill its roots into the stems of other plants to take water, energy and nutrients from the plant. One dodder plant can be half a mile long! It will completely cover the ground and feed off most plants that it comes across.
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