The Cucurbitales are an order of flowering plants, included in the rosid group of dicotyledons. This order mostly belongs to tropical areas, with limited presence in subtropical and temperate regions. The order includes shrubs and trees, together with many herbs and climbers. One major characteristic of the Cucurbitales is the presence of unisexual flowers, mostly pentacyclic, with thick pointed petals. The pollination is usually performed by insects, but wind pollination is also present.
The order Lamiales are an order in the asterid group of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It includes about 23,810 species, 1,059 genera, and is divided into about 25 families. These families include Acanthaceae, Bignoniaceae, Byblidaceae, Calceolariaceae, Carlemanniaceae, Gesneriaceae, Lamiaceae, Lentibulariaceae, Linderniaceae, Martyniaceae, Mazaceae, Oleaceae, Orobanchaceae, Paulowniaceae, Pedaliaceae, Peltantheraceae, Phrymaceae, Plantaginaceae, Plocospermataceae, Schlegeliaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Stilbaceae, Tetrachondraceae, Thomandersiaceae, Verbenaceae.
The Malpighiales comprise one of the largest orders of flowering plants, containing about 36 families and more than 16,000 species, about 7.8% of the eudicots. The order is very diverse, containing plants as different as the willow, violet, poinsettia, manchineel, rafflesia and coca plant, and are hard to recognize except with molecular phylogenetic evidence. It is not part of any of the classification systems based only on plant morphology. Molecular clock calculations estimate the origin of stem group Malpighiales at around 100 million years ago (Mya) and the origin of crown group Malpighiales at about 90 Mya.
Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. The species have enormous flowers, the buds rising from the ground or directly from the lower stems of their host plants; one species has the largest flower in the world. Plants of the World Online lists up to 41 species from this genus, all of them are found throughout Southeast Asia.
The Vitaceae are a family of flowering plants, with 14 genera and around 910 known species, including common plants such as grapevines and Virginia creeper. The family name is derived from the genus Vitis.
Mahonia is a formerly accepted genus of approximately 70 species of shrubs or, rarely, small trees with evergreen leaves in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia, the Himalaya, North America, and Central America. They are closely related to the genus Berberis and as of 2023 the majority of botanical sources list it as a synonym for Berberis.
Rafflesia arnoldii, the corpse flower, or giant padma, is a species of flowering plant in the parasitic genus Rafflesia. It is noted for producing the largest individual flower on Earth. It has a strong and unpleasant odor of decaying flesh. It is native to the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. Although there are some plants with larger flowering organs like the titan arum and talipot palm, those are technically clusters of many flowers.
Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family of mostly parasitic plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera were formerly included in the family Scrophulariaceae sensu lato. With its new circumscription, Orobanchaceae forms a distinct, monophyletic family. From a phylogenetic perspective, it is defined as the largest crown clade containing Orobanche major and relatives, but neither Paulownia tomentosa nor Phryma leptostachya nor Mazus japonicus.
Hydnoroideae is a subfamily of parasitic flowering plants in the order Piperales. Traditionally, and as recently as the APG III system it given family rank under the name Hydnoraceae. It is now submerged in the Aristolochiaceae. It contains two genera, Hydnora and Prosopanche:
The Rafflesiaceae are a family of rare parasitic plants comprising 36 species in 3 genera found in the tropical forests of east and southeast Asia, including Rafflesia arnoldii, which has the largest flowers of all plants. The plants are endoparasites of vines in the genus Tetrastigma (Vitaceae) and lack stems, leaves, roots, and any photosynthetic tissue. They rely entirely on their host plants for both water and nutrients, and only then emerge as flowers from the roots or lower stems of the host plants.
A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the haustorium, which penetrates the host plant, connecting them to the host vasculature – either the xylem, phloem, or both. For example, plants like Striga or Rhinanthus connect only to the xylem, via xylem bridges (xylem-feeding). Alternately, plants like Cuscuta and some members of Orobanche connect to both the xylem and phloem of the host. This provides them with the ability to extract resources from the host. These resources can include water, nitrogen, carbon and/or sugars. Parasitic plants are classified depending on the location where the parasitic plant latches onto the host, the amount of nutrients it requires, and their photosynthetic capability. Some parasitic plants can locate their host plants by detecting volatile chemicals in the air or soil given off by host shoots or roots, respectively. About 4,500 species of parasitic plants in approximately 20 families of flowering plants are known.
Sapria is a genus of parasitic flowering plants in the family Rafflesiaceae. It grows within roots of Vitis and Tetrastigma. The genus is limited to the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia.
Cytinus is a genus of parasitic flowering plants. Species in this genus do not produce chlorophyll, but rely fully on its host plant. Cytinus usually parasitizes Cistus and Halimium, two genera of plants in the family Cistaceae. It has also been found on Ptilostemon chamaepeuce.
Bdallophytum is a genus of parasitic flowering plants with five described species. It parasitizes on the roots of plants of the genus Bursera, such as Bursera simaruba. The genus is endemic to the Neotropics.
Sapria himalayana, commonly known as the hermit's spittoon, is a rare holoparasitic flowering plant related to Rafflesia found in the Eastern Himalayas. Sapria himalayana represents the extreme manifestation of the parasitic mode, being completely dependent on its host plant for water, nutrients and products of photosynthesis which it sucks through a specialised root system called haustoria. These haustoria are attached to both the xylem and the phloem of the host plant.
The family Apodanthaceae comprises about 10 species of endoparasitic herbs. They live in the branches or stems of their hosts, emerging only to flower and fruit. The plants produce no green parts and do not carry out any photosynthesis. There are two genera: Pilostyles and Apodanthes. A third genus, Berlinianche, was never validly published. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences confidently place the Apodanthaceae in the Cucurbitales, where they also fit well in terms of their flower morphology.
Pilostyles thurberi is a species of endoparasitic flowering plant known by the common names Thurber's stemsucker and Thurber's pilostyles. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in desert and woodland. In the United States, P. thurberi has been recorded from the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas.
Mitrastemon is a genus of two widely disjunct species of parasitic plants. It is the only genus within the family Mitrastemonaceae. Mitrastemon species are root endoparasites, which grow on Fagaceae. It is also a non-photosynthetic plant that parasitizes other plants such as Castanopsis sieboldii.
Cynomorium is a genus of parasitic perennial flowering plants in the family Cynomoriaceae. The genus consists of only one species, Cynomorium coccineum. Its placement in the Saxifragales was resolved in 2016 with the help of nuclear, plastid, and mitochondrial sequences obtained from next-generation sequencing. Common names include the misleading Maltese fungus or Maltese mushroom; also desert thumb, red thumb, tarthuth (Bedouin) and suoyang (Chinese). A rare or local species, it grows in dry, rocky or sandy soils, often in salt marshes or other saline habitats close to the coast. It has had a wide variety of uses in European, Arabian and Chinese herbal medicine.
Apodanthes is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apodanthaceae. It has only one currently accepted species, Apodanthes caseariae, native to Central America and northern South America. It is a holoparasite that lives inside plants from the families Salicaceae and Fabaceae, and emerges only to flower.
