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 […]
In the misty rainforests of southern Chile, we have discovered a crucial shift in the forest’s food web as we go higher into the mountains. We studied two types of mistletoe, which are parasitic plants. In the lowlands, a generalist mistletoe thrives on many tree species, while a picky, specialist mistletoe only grows on beech […]
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 […]
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), […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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; […]
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 […]
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 […]