Balanophoraceae
Balanophora Family
The Balanophoraceae family (Balanophora Family) is a botanical family placed in the order Santalales. In the SASYA catalogue it spans 3 species. Its members are predominantly parasites. Several members are valued in traditional medicine. Familiar examples include Dwarf Balanophora and fungus root.
Browse all 3 species ↓
A fully parasitic family with no chlorophyll, true leaves, or roots of its own — instead a fleshy, often brightly coloured tuber-like body erupts directly from a host plant's root, pushing up a compact, mushroom-like flower head made of thousands of tiny flowers packed together.
So completely dependent on its host and so unlike an ordinary plant in appearance that early botanists mistook it for a fungus — one of the most extreme parasites in the flowering-plant kingdom.
Which Balanophoraceae species is this?
Answer what you can see and narrow it down to a single Balanophoraceae species.
Typical flower & fruit
- Flower symmetryVariable
- InflorescenceVariable
- FruitDrupe
Typical of the family — flowering plants only; species can vary.
Notable members
All 3 species in BALANOPHORACEAE
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