Sarcouncil Journal of Agriculture

Abstract: The present investigation was focused on the anatomical characterization of leaf, stem, haustorium and connection of host – parasite. Generally, the studies on parasitic plants and their hosts are poorly investigated and usually neglected in Indian communities. As there are no earlier reports on anatomical study of this plant species, so the present research work was carried out. From the present study it is observed that, the vascular bundles were less developed and having poorly developed phloem but well developed xylem. It means that, parasitic plant i.e. Alectra parasitica A. Rich. can efficiently takes water and prepared food, from the host plant. This parasitic species also shows variations in the invasiveness of endophytic tissues of haustorium into the host vascular tissue. Also, the variations of leaf and stem anatomy is significant and revealed that this characters possesses many attributes of potential taxonomic importance that are diagnostic at the genus and species levels.