1. Beechdrops have a special structure on their roots called a haustorium

2. Viscum minimum, adhesive disk, adhesive epithelium, cuticle ultrastructure, cutin cystolith, haustorium, secretion.

3. The micropylar haustorium consists of two cells with only one endopolyploid nucleus in each.

4. The haustorium engulfs the root of the target plant (Beechdrops are obligate parasites of beech trees) and taps the root for its life-giving sap.

5. Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) are parasitic plants which obtain nutrients from the American Beech tree.They insert a root-like structure called a haustorium into a beech root and absorb enough nutrition to sustain themselves …

6. Up to the onset of sporulation at 8 days after inoculation the only major alteration in cell structure was a marked tendency for the cell organelles to be aggregated around the intracellular fungal haustorium and an accumulation of starch in the plastids.