The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
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.
Unlike other plants, the flowers of this organism change sex from male to female. Various insects are involved in pollination. Mitrastemon yamamotol is mainly pollinated by social wasps, but previously unnoticed pollination are also important, based on visitation frequency and pollen loads. There have been studies of the pollination that suggest that nocturnal visitors, such as crickets and cockroaches, contribute to geitonogamous pollination. Diurnal visitors like social wasps facilitate outcrossing.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mitrastemon by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
