A root-like or sucker-like structure in parasitic plants that penetrates the host plant's tissues and absorbs water and nutrients from it.
From Latin 'haustorium,' literally meaning 'drinking apparatus,' derived from 'haustus' (a drawing). Adopted into botanical terminology to describe plant parasitism in the 1600s.
Parasitic plants like dodder and mistletoe have haustoria—specialized piercing organs that work like biological syringes to drain nutrients straight from host trees; nature's most elegant botanical vampirism.
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