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Parasitic angiosperms as cultivated plants?

  • Notes on Neglected and Underutilized Crops
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Abstract

The knowledge about parasitic plants has increased in the latest years. Their importance as economic plants is generally considered low. Some of the species came into cultivation mainly as medicinal plants, fruit trees and some as vegetables. Only Olacaceae (1), Opiliaceae (1), Santalaceae (6), Viscaceae (1), Ximeniaceae (1) and Orobanchaceae (3) contain some cultivated species (number in brackets). Santalum spp. (root parasites) and Viscum album (stem parasite) are of greater importance for the production of sandalwood oil and an anti-cancer medicine, respectively. Their parasitic nature is well known to the growers. In other cases, the parasitic nature is not noted, especially in semiparasitic root species (Arjona, Anacolosa). New results are to be expected with holoparasitic root parasites (Cistanche, Orobanche).

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Acknowledgments

This work has been partly supported by the project “RGV FAO DM 3825”. The authors are grateful to Dr. Gaetano Laghetti, Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources CNR, Bari, Italy, for allowing the use of pictures of two plants: Cynomorium coccineum and Osyris alba.

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  1. CNR Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Domenico Pignone

  2. Leibniz-Institut für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung, Gatersleben, Germany

    Karl Hammer

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Pignone, D., Hammer, K. Parasitic angiosperms as cultivated plants?. Genet Resour Crop Evol 63, 1273–1284 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-016-0416-x

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