Beechdrops

I was writing about hay-rattle Rhinanthus minor a peculiarly desirable meadow flower parasitic on grasses. Digging a bit revealed that it was part of Family Orobanchaceae. Dang! that rings a bell I thought . . . but a distant one. The family name derives from the Greek ὄροβος (vetch, a legume) + ἄγχω (strangler). And that's the key to the family's success. Their roots invade the roots of grasses and legumes to dine off the products of their host's photosynthesis - collapse of grass, which allows other meadow species to thrive in the gaps. Orobanchs all engage in parasitism but some, like hay-rattle, do not inhale and retain the ability to photosynthesize. When we came back to Ireland in 1990, the TCD lab in which I started to work had just emptied of a clatter of exceptionally smart scientists who all, eventually, became Full Professors at UCD, the Other University. One of them, Ken Wolfe, signed up as a PostDoc in Jeff Palmer's Bloomington Indiana lab; tasked to investigate what…