''Hydnora'' is a group of parasitic plants described as a genus in 1775. It is native to Africa, Madagascar, and the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> Hydnora pollinates through brood-site mimicry. This is a method of pollination in which the plant emits a smell that is attractive to insects, so that the plant can trap the insect and allow to take pollen so that it can pollinate other Hydnora.

Taxonomy

The following species are listed within the genus ''Hydnora'': # '' Hydnora abyssinica'' A.Br. - Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia; S + C + SE + E Africa from

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

to Namibia +

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

# ''

Hydnora africana ''Hydnora africana'' is an achlorophyllous plant in the subfamily Hydnoroideae, native to southern Africa that is parasitic on the roots of members of the family Euphorbiaceae. It is also called ''jakkalskos'' or ''jackal food''. The specific e ...

'' Thunb. - Angola, Namibia, Cape Province #'' Hydnora arabica'' Bolin & Musselman - Oman & Yemen # '' Hydnora esculenta'' Jum. & H.Perrier - Madagascar # '' Hydnora sinandevu'' Beentje & Q.Luke - Kenya, Tanzania # ''

Hydnora triceps ''Hydnora triceps'' is a holoparasitic flowering plant native to Africa that grows on the roots of '' Euphorbia dregeana''. Completely lacking in chlorophyll, it depends on its host for water and nutrients. The plant structure is composed of on ...

'' Drège & E.Mey. - Northern Cape Province, Namibia # ''

Hydnora visseri ''Hydnora visseri'', the Visser's hydnora, is a subterranean holoparasitic plant, lacking leaves and roots, and is described from southwestern Namibia and northwestern South Africa and has the longest tepal lobes of all ''Hydnora'' species. The g ...

'' Bolin, E.Maass, & Musselman - Northern Cape Province, Namibia

Etymology

The genus name ''Hydnora'' derives from the ancient Greek , ' truffle', because of the somatic structure of this root parasite.

Genomics

One of the smallest plastid genomes among flowering plants has been found in the genus ''Hydnora''. As compared to the

chloroplast genome Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is the DNA located in chloroplasts, which are photosynthetic organelles located within the cells of some eukaryotic organisms. Chloroplasts, like other types of plastid, contain a genome separate from that in the cell Cel ...

of its closest photosynthetic relatives, the plastome of ''Hydnora visseri'' shows extreme reduction in both size (ca. 27 kilo

base pairs A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA ...

) and gene content (24 genes appear to be functional).

Ethnobotany

Other ''Hydnora'' species are known to be available in Southern African herbal markets in Mozambique and South Africa. In South Africa the Imbola yesiXhosa are reported to use a thin paste of the powdered ''Hydnora'' rhizome as a treatment for acne and other skin conditions. In Uganda, the ''Hydnora'' spp. are reported to be used as food (fruits) and medicine (rhizomes) for diarrhea, hypertension, and diabetes, though these claims have not been confirmed.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1640095 Piperales genera Parasitic plants Aristolochiaceae