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Parasitic Associations

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Plant Physiological Ecology

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We have so far mainly dealt with autotrophic plants that assimilate CO2 from the atmosphere into complex organic molecules and acquire nutrients and water from the rhizosphere. There are also fascinating higher plant species that lack the capacity to assimilate sufficient CO2 to sustain their growth and that cannot absorb nutrients and water from the rhizosphere in sufficient quantities to reproduce successfully. These plants comprise approximately 1% of all flowering plant species; they are parasitic and rely on a host plant to provide them with the materials they cannot acquire from their abiotic environment (Kuijt 1969).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia

    Hans Lambers

  2. University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    F. Stuart Chapin III

  3. Utrecht University, The Netherlands

    Thijs L. Pons

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  1. Hans Lambers
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Lambers, H., Chapin, F.S., Pons, T.L. (2008). Parasitic Associations. In: Plant Physiological Ecology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78341-3_15

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