Photosynthetic activity in the heterotrophic plant genus Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae) is modulated by phylogeny and ontogeny.
Schneider AC, Ekwealor JTB, Besik A, Ibrahim N, Ensminger I
Parasitic Plants
That orange spaghetti-like vine strangling your tomatoes or black-eyed Susans isn't just a thief — it's still quietly running photosynthesis in its shoot tips, which helps explain why it's so hard to kill and why it bounces back so vigorously after partial removal.
Dodder is the orange, leafless, stringy vine you sometimes see tangled around garden plants and wildflowers — it's a parasite that plugs into other plants to steal their water and sugars. Scientists used to assume dodder had basically given up on making its own food through sunlight, but this study measured light-harvesting activity directly across 14 dodder species and found it's still very much happening, especially in young growing tips and developing seeds. Photosynthesis in dodder isn't a broken leftover from its non-parasitic ancestors — it's a tunable tool the plant still uses strategically.
Key Findings
Photosynthetic activity and chlorophyll levels were highest in meristematic regions (shoot tips and developing seeds) and lowest in mature stems and haustoria — the attachment organs used to drain host plants.
Neoxanthin, a pigment found in nearly all plants, appears to have been lost once across the entire dodder lineage and then independently re-evolved in certain species — a rare evolutionary pattern.
Complex patterns between photosynthetic activity and lutein epoxide concentration suggest the pigment plays different roles in high-energy tissues (like seeds) versus low-energy tissues, indicating photosynthesis is actively regulated rather than vestigial.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Dodder, a parasitic vine that wraps around and steals nutrients from garden plants, turns out to still use photosynthesis in targeted ways — especially in its growing tips and seeds — rather than having abandoned it entirely. The study shows this retained photosynthetic ability varies both by life stage and by evolutionary lineage across the genus.
Abstract Preview
Photosynthesis is central to plant function, yet it has been repeatedly lost or diminished in parasitic angiosperm lineages. This variation raises questions about how photosynthetic function is ret...
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Cuscuta, commonly known as dodder or amarbel, is a genus of over 201 species of yellow, orange, or red parasitic plants. The genus possess minimal chlorophyll and utilize haustoria to extract nutrient and water from host's vascular system. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutac...