''Hydnora'' is a group of

parasitic plant 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 ...

s described as a genus in 1775. It is native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

, 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 ''Hydnora'' is a group of parasitic plants described as a genus in 1775. It is native to Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula. Hydnora pollinates through brood-site mimicry. This is a method of pollination in which the plant emits a smel ...

'' A.Br. -

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

; S + C + SE + E

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 ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

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 , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

#''

Hydnora arabica ''Hydnora'' is a group of parasitic plants described as a genus in 1775. It is native to Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula. Hydnora pollinates through brood-site mimicry. This is a method of pollination in which the plant emits a smel ...

'' Bolin & Musselman -

# ''

Hydnora esculenta ''Hydnora'' is a group of parasitic plants described as a genus in 1775. It is native to Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula. Hydnora pollinates through brood-site mimicry. This is a method of pollination in which the plant emits a smel ...

'' Jum. & H.Perrier -

# ''

Hydnora sinandevu ''Hydnora'' is a group of parasitic plants described as a genus in 1775. It is native to Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula. Hydnora pollinates through brood-site mimicry. This is a method of pollination in which the plant emits a smel ...

'' Beentje & Q.Luke -

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

# ''

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 The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, ...

# ''

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 -

Etymology

The genus name ''Hydnora'' derives from the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

, '

truffle A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus ''Tuber''. In addition to ''Tuber'', many other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including ''Geopora'', ''Peziz ...

', because of the somatic structure of this root parasite.

Genomics

One of the smallest

plastid 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 nuc ...

s among

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s 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 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 n ...

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 }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, 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