How does Cuscuta a parasitic plant feeds?

Nov 24, 2019 • 9:07 AM UTC

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Microorganisms

edurafi

I'm a science educator interested in everything science.

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A post about this Sunday’s exploration: You must have seen greenish yellow threads/wire like structures on many plants. What are they? Are they part of plant or a seperate plant or creeper?

If you go closer you’ll see that they definately not part the plant. And if you try to check if it is creeper using the plant for support, you’ll notice that it doesn’t lead to the ground.

If it is not creeper then what is it doing on the plant, how is it surviving? It is plant called Cuscuta n it uses plant for its advantage, this post is about how does it do it?
When look closely you can see that yellow thread of Cuscuta merges with the branches of the plant. When i took a section i could see that the Cuscuta has penetrated the branch of the host plant.
I mounted d section of host plant n Cuscuta, I saw that d Cuscuta has penetrated the tissues of the host plant. It has penetrated till d highways of the plant from where d transport of the nutrients produced by d leaves takes place.

There is stark difference between the structure of d host plant n Cuscuta. At the intersection u can c d pipes Cuscuta is entering into host plants transport system.

Video: https://t.co/ATbKeZadDx
Another video, in this I am going from Cuscuta part to d host plant part. In this video few things r clear:- Different between d cell structure, point where Cuscuta breaks into d stem of host plant and structure with which Cuscuta sucks nutrients. Video: https://t.co/d96VTVei2x
In Marathi Cuscuta is called ‘Amarvel’, which can loosely translated as ‘immortal creeper’. Name is apt as it is difficult to kill, even if small piece of it survives on a plant it can grow into a full blown plant.
Cuscuta or Amarvel is completely or largely dependent on the host plant for nutrition. It has leaf like structures but they are reduced to just scales. It also has flowers n produces seeds.
Update: Sharing a beautiful video showing the life cycle of the Cuscuta, starting from d germination to completely covering host plant. A must watch https://t.co/PX0OPvi4ZX