Growth Assay for the Stem Parasitic Plants of the Genus .

spp. are widespread obligate holoparasitic plants with a broad host spectrum. Rootless penetrates host stems with so called haustoria to form a direct connection to the host vascular tissue ( Dawson , 1994 ; Lanini and Kogan, 2005; Kaiser , 2015 ). This connection allows a steady uptake of water, assimilates and essential nutrients from the host plant and therefore enables growth and proliferation. To quantify the parasites' ability to grow on potential host plants one can use the quantitative growth assay ( Hegenauer , 2016 ) described herein, which exclusively utilizes fresh weight measurement as readout.