glynnalard's Identifications

Jakkalskos

Hydnora africana is a holoparasitic plant (not fungus). It produces no chlorophyll and is entirely dependent on a host plant. In place of roots it feeds off of its host via a special structure called a haustorium. This species parasitises plants in the Euphorbia genus.

Interestingly it was growing intermixed with Harveya squamossa (also a parasite).

I have wanted to see this plant within Cape Town for almost a decade. It was growing in dunes just off the beach in Table Bay Nature Reserve.

We have a significant diversity of parasitic plants in Cape Town that are especially worth conserving in urban areas as they indicate good condition ecosystems. There is very little literature and understanding of the conservation horticulture of parasitic plants in the Fynbos.