Question

Give an example of a parasitic plant with yellow, slender and tubular stem.

Answer 1

Hint: Parasites are those organisms that live on or in the host and get their food from or at the expense of its host.

Complete Answer:
Parasitic plant: A parasitic plant is a plant that derives its some or all the nutrition from another living plant. All parasitic plants have modified roots called the haustoria.
- Haustoria penetrate the host plant and connect themselves to the conducting system of the host plant i.e. phloem and xylem.
- Due to this type of connection parasitic plants extract water and nutrients from the host plant.
 Examples – Cuscuta, Orobanche, etc.

Parasitic plant with yellow, slender and tubular stem: Cuscuta is a parasitic plant that has yellow, slender and tubular stem. Cuscuta is commonly known as Amar bail in India.
- Plant of Cuscuta belongs to the family Cuscutaceae and it comprises about 200 species.
- Cuscuta cannot make its own food, it gets its all nutrients from the host plant.
- Cuscuta is an ectoparasite (lives outside the host) that has no chlorophyll.

Hence, it is clear that Cuscuta is the parasitic plant with yellow, slender and tubular stem.

Note: In the parasitism association one member of this association gets benefited and other members of this association get harmed. In the above case the host plant gets harmed as it is losing its nutrients. On the other hand parasitic plant i.e. Cuscuta get benefited because it get all its nutrients from the host plant without doing anything.