Balanophora is a plant that abandoned photosynthesis long ago and now lives entirely as a parasite on tree roots, hidden in ...

A rare fossil plant reveals how early plants moved water and food, helping to explain the secrets of tree growth.

Plants that drop all their leaves at one time and enter a leafless, dormant state are called deciduous. In climates that ...

“Many people equate plants with photosynthesis, yet Balanophora illustrates that being a plant does not require being green,” ...

The tallest plants alive today can grow to over 100 meters tall. But they evolved from ancestors that were just a few ...

Spruce bark is rich in phenolic compounds that protect trees from pathogenic fungi. A research team at the Max Planck ...

This rare plant looks like a mushroom is actually a parasitic flowering species. Scientists reveal how Balanophora survives without photosynthesis and adapts to fragile forest habitats.

At the base of mossy trees, deep in the mountains of Taiwan and mainland Japan or nestled in the subtropical forests of Okinawa, grows what most might mistake for a mushroom—but it is actually a very ...

A plant that looks like a fungus, lives like a parasite, and clones itself in the dark—Balanophora may be one of evolution’s ...

In the damp understory of forests in Taiwan, mainland Japan, and Okinawa, a plant called Balanophora can fool you at first ...

“My long-standing aim is to rethink what it truly means to be a plant,” Kenji Suetsugu, a botanist at Kobe University in Japan, said in a statement. “For many years I have been fascinated by plants ...

A macro photograph of a cluster of mushroom-like plants on the forest floor against a mossy backdrop. These are Balanophora fungosa ssp. fungosa from southern Okinawa Island. At the base of mossy ...