Recent Approaches to Orobanche Management

Parasitic plants account for approximately 1% of angiosperm species and are present in 22 botanical families. Several of the parasitic species are important agricultural weeds, infest a wide range of crops around the globe, and pose a major threat to the food security of numerous communities. The agriculturally important parasitic weeds fall into four main groups: 1. Viscaceae and Loranthaceae (mistletoes): green hemiparasites that parasitize aerial parts of shrubs and trees; 2. Cuscutaceae (dodders): holoparasitic twining stem parasites that attack dicot plants; 3. Scrophulariaceae (figworts and witchweeds): contains hemi-parasitic root parasites that invade roots of host plants; 4. Orobanchaceae (broomrapes): holoparasitic root parasites that invade dicot plants.