Hydnora esculenta

Botanical Description

Hydnora esculenta is an unmistakable plant - a totally parasitic, perennial that is without any chlorophyll or leaves at all. With its vegetative parts looking more like a fungus, it is one of the strangest plants in the world. Its vegetative plant body is highly reduced and consists of only roots and flowers - it belongs to the only family of angiosperms with no leaves or scales of any sort. Parasitic on the roots of host trees, especially Acacia spp., it has an underground stem, or pseudo-rhizome, that grows into the host's roots and so extracts food. The plant is only seen when the tips of the flowers push out of the ground - even the fruit develops below the soil surface[ 590 Title The genus Hydnora Publication Author Website http://www.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/parasitic/hydnora_intro.php Publisher Old Dominion University Year 0 ISBN Description A downloaded web page giving fairly detailed information on the parasitic genus Hydnore. ]. The edible fruit is gathered from the wild and is much esteemed locally[ 46 Title Dictionary of Economic Plants. Publication Author Uphof. J. C. Th. Publisher Weinheim Year 1959 ISBN - Description An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader. ].