Functional biology of parasitic plants: a review

Individual independent lineages largely differ in size (number of species), phylogenetic age and the degree of trophic specialization (Barkman et al. 2007, Nickrent 2012, Naumann et al. 2013). Of these, Orobanchaceae and Santalales are the largest monophyletic groups of parasitic plants, both of which also contain both hemi-and holoparasites. By contrast all the other lineages are small in terms of number of species