English: Jakkalskos; Jackal food.
Name: hydnon in Greek means truffle.
Region: southern Africa; Africa,
Madagascar, Arabian Peninsula.
Content: dimethyl disulphide, dimethyl trisulfide.
Ecology: parasitic on
Euphorbiaceae.
Use: root for tanning, preserving fishnets; food; medicinal; tannin.
BotanyHerb; achlorophyllous, obligate parasitic on the roots of
Euphorbiaceae, photosynthesis lacking; grows underground, except for a fleshy that emerges above ground and emits an odor of feces to attract its pollinators.
Roots: thick succulent.
Stems: lacking.
Leaves: lacking; scales lacking.
Flowers: succulent, thick, fleshy, similar to a fungus; peachy-orange; above ground; emits an odor of feces; act as temporary traps, retaining the beetles that enter long enough for them to pick up pollen; tubular with three openings; sepals 3, unite at the top of the flower, join in a short tube, yellowish-orange; groups of anthers are held in bunches, arranged into a triangle so that a gap forms between their pits and the beetles will proceed to fall down onto the stigma of the parasitic plant; basal portion houses the white ovules that will mature into seeds; blooming after a heavy rainfall; smells very strong, unpleasant smell, from the osmophores on the inner surface of the tepals; odour is made up of dimethyl disulphide and dimethyl trisulfide.
Pollination: by dung beetles, carrion beetles, by burying themselves in the sepals of the flowers through the very strong fibres; after a couple of days, the flower emerges and opens releasing the insects to spread the pollen to other flowers in the area.
Fruit: grows underground, taking up to two years to ripen fully; 8 cm diameter; similar in taste and texture to a potato; each with about 20000 seeds.
Dispersion: by animals, birds, smaller animals, jackals, porcupines, moles.
TaxonomyHydnora has one of the smallest plastid genomes among flowering plants. The plastome shows extreme reduction in size and gene content, only 24 genes appear to be functional.