Hydnora visseri (Hydnora visseri)
Description
Visser's Hydnora,as a holoparasitic plant,lacks chlorophyll and depends entirely on its hosts,Euphorbia gregaria or Euphorbia gummifera,for all water and nutrition.Hydnora visseri lacks leaves and roots.The vegetative body of the plant is a brown warty rhizome that spreads laterally through the soil.The bumps on the rhizome of Hydnora spp.can differentiate into haustoria (specialized organs for parasitizing the host plant),flower buds,or bifurcations of the rhizome.The rhizomes when broken are reddish to pink and contain high levels of tannins.The only portion of the plant that emerges from the soil surface is the large fleshy flower.The pollination of Visser's Hydnora involves a trap and release mechanism where dermestid beetles are detained for several days,then released dusted with pollen.The fruit is a large berry with thousands of small (< 1mm diameter) seeds,and is usually buried or just at the soil surface.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Piperales
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Family: Hydnoraceae
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Genus: Hydnora
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