A Plant With No Leaves, No Chlorophyll, and Apparently No Shame

Lophophytum, a parasitic root flower, spends most of its life underground, tapped into the roots of a host tree, taking everything it needs to survive. Water, nutrients, energy: all of it, lifted from the host. Now researchers have found the parasite is also taking the instruction manual.

Argentine researchers at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, studying this parasitic plant, incapable of photosynthesis on its own, found that it can acquire genes from a host plant and actually put them to work, with the borrowed genes functionally replacing its own.

Genes jumping sideways between unrelated species, instead of passing from parent to offspring, isn't new. It happens throughout nature. But scientists assumed those borrowed genes mostly went dead on arrival, along for the ride but not doing any actual work. Nobody expected a plant to swap out its own genes for a stranger's and put them to work instead.

This particular root parasite turns out to be an exceptional case. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B in June 2026, found the borrowed genes work best when they arrive close to plug-and-play, needing the least amount of editing to function. Right now, about 60 percent of the plant's mitochondrial genome, the part of the cell that generates energy, comes straight from its host.

The root parasite no longer just borrows a host's resources. It borrows the operating system.

Read the full story at Muy Interesante, July 4, 2026

Hot Take: Every endurance athlete eventually stops carrying what they don't need and starts living off the terrain. The parasitic plant skipped the metaphor and started running on someone else's genome.