Plant Disease

Although nearly 2,000 years ago Pliny the El-der recognized the epiphytic or parasitic habit of certain plant species, much of what we know about these fas-cinating organisms derives from our study of them during the past 130 years. Still, “our knowledge about how they induce disease [in plants] remains fragmentary and filled with conjecture” (Knutson 1979). Most genera of parasitic seed plants are tropical o