A new Special Issue of Weed Research, dedicated to parasitic weeds, is now completed. Submissions focusing on all aspects -from biology, physiology and ecology to management- with relevance to weedy species of parasitic plants were welcomed. The call for this Special Issue resulted in seven papers.
Five papers presented studies on Striga hermonthica, probably the most widespread and devastating parasitic weed of the African continent. Two of the S. hermonthica papers focus on host-plant resistance responses (Kunguni et al., 2023, Odero et al., 2024), one on host-plant tolerance (Ahmed et al., 2025), one on farm conditions and crop management (Rusinamhodzi et al., 2024) and one on the application of the host-plant growth regulator cytokinin to trigger suicidal germination (Jamil et al., 2023). In another paper, a methodology for strigolactone-analogue testing in soils is developed (Wallach et al., 2024). The seventh paper presents a study on re-infection of tomato by Phelipanche ramosa, one of the most important and widely distributed broomrape species in Europa (Leman et al., 2024).
The editorial, authored by Maurizio Vurro and Jonne Rodenburg, providing a contextual overview, can be accessed freely here: