ABSTRACT
Parasitic plant species have lost their autotrophic way of life during evolution and have adapted to parasitize other plants in order to supply themselves with water and nutrients. Unfortunately for farmers, a small number of these species have become weeds, posing severe constraints to major crops including grain legumes. This is the case of the witchweeds (Striga spp.), dodders (Cuscuta spp.) and broomrapes (Orobanche spp.). In this chapter we focus on parasitic plants infecting legumes, specifi cally the genus Orobanche. Other genera of weedy root parasites have been already reviewed (Parker and Riches 1993; Press and Graves 1995).
