11/01/02’s illustrious band:

Vegetal Vampires

Brought to you by scientist Martin I. Bidartondo from the University of California at Berkeley, via the ever-observant Skeeter. Bidartondo has discovered that even flowers are thieves.

Bidartondo and colleagues have discovered a new group of plants that live by sucking the juice out of others. Normally plants get their energy by using sunshine to convert water and carbon dioxide into fuel. They also absorb nutrients from the soil, employing threads of fungus called mycorrhizae around their roots to do so.

Some plants, however, exploit the abilities of their mycorrhizae, sending them to take nutrients not from the surrounding soil, but from other plants’ mycorrhizae. They’re like little Mafia goons, sneaking out at night to put the hit on other underworld bosses’ goons.

Some of these vampire plants have beautiful flowers, which just goes to show that beauty does not equal innocence. One is the lily-like Arachnitis uniflora. See some Bidartondo photos at http://plantbio.berkeley.edu/~bruns/monotrope.html.