The IPPS wishes you a happy and successful 2026!

Dear IPPS members, I hope you are all doing well. As the president of the International Parasitic Plant Society, and on behalf of the whole Executive Committee, I want to share my very best New Year wishes to all of you, through this means. I hope the year 2026 will be another year of exciting […]

4th International Congress on Strigolactones (ICS2026) Paris

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Forwarding message:  On behalf of the organizing committee, we would like to cordially invite you and welcome you to the “4thInternational Congress on Strigolactones (ICS)”, which will be held in Paris, FRANCE, from 5 to 8 October 2026. All the information about travel, abstract submission, detailed scientific program, and registration is available on the website. Please see: https://ics2026.sciencesconf.org/   The scientific program […]

Our online survey on parasitic weeds in Europe is soon closing

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We’re soon (31 Dec.) closing our parasitic weed survey 🌻 🌾 ☘️ . Please help us to bring this one more time to the attention of (field crop) farmers 🚜 and agronomists across Europe and request their participation!The survey (at tinyurl.com/parasiticweeds) is available in 8 languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese and Dutch), […]

December IPPS Seminars by Natalia Pabón Mora, Huiting Zhang and Ahmed Choukri

We are pleased to announce the speakers for our December IPPS seminars. First talk: Prof.  Natalia Pabón Mora from the University of Antioquia, Colombia, will talk about “From hidden bodies to normal flowers: The limits of developmental reprogramming in holoparasitic plants” Second talk: Dr. Huiting Zhang, from the Washington State University, USA, will talk about […]

Rain brings surprising shifts for desert mistletoes and their animal visitors

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In the dry landscapes of north-central Chile, a large rainfall unexpectedly changed the rules of survival for two local mistletoe species. Researchers found that the heavy winter rains caused one mistletoe to produce fewer flowers, while the other flourished, producing more flowers and fruit. This difference had a ripple effect on the local wildlife. The […]

First National Symposium on Parasitic Plants Successfully Concluded in Kunming, China

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From November 5 to 7, 2025, the inaugural National Symposium on Parasitic Plants was successfully held at Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The symposium was co-chaired by Professor Jianqiang Wu and Professor Airong Li, both from the host institute. The event brought together leading researchers in the field of parasitic plant […]

Haustorium 88 is now available for download on the IPPS website.

We are delighted to announce the publication of the 88th issue of Haustorium! Please follow the link below to download Haustorium 88. This edition features, among other highlights, a message from the IPPS President with updates on the upcoming WCPP in Brazil; lively discussions of recent literature by Jonathan Gressel, Jeanmaire Molina, and Chris Thorogood; […]

The role of soil microbiota in the control of parasitic weeds

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Happy to present the work of postdoc Pornkanok Pongpamorn and PhD student Michelle Zwart, carried out in the Promise II project lead by Jos Raaijmakers. Parasitic weeds from the Orobanchaceae family, particularly Striga, Orobanche, and Phelipanche spp., are responsible for substantial agricultural losses worldwide. A better understanding of the intricate chemical interaction between parasitic plants and their […]

November IPPS Seminars by Guillaume Brun and Martina Leso

We are pleased to announce the speakers for our November IPPS seminars. First talk: Dr. Guillaume Brun from Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, will talk about “Seed metabolites headstart haustoriogenesis and potentiate aggressiveness of parasitic weeds” Second talk: Dr. Martina Leso, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, will talk about “Regulating haustoria numbers […]