Abstract
The photosynthetic capacity of representatives of 24 species belonging to 16 genera of South African parasitic flowering plants had been investigated in respect of their chlorophyll concentration, photosynthetic activity, respiratory activities, CO 2 -compensation point, δ13 C-values and chloroplast ultrastructure. Some species were totally devoid of chlorophyll whilst other species had chlorophyll concentrations which varied from 2.0 to 9.3 mg chlorophyll (dm 2 plant area) -1 . Relatively high values (176.7 to 255.0 µl l -1 CO 2 ) for CO 2 -compensation points of stem hemiparasites were obtained in contrast to much lower values (51.7 to 148.3 µl l -1 CO 2 ) of the root hemiparasites. The hosts of the parasites could be classified as either C 3 - or C 4 -plants on the basis of their δ13 C-values, while those of the parasites all fell within the range characteristic of C 3 -plants. The chloroplasts ultrastucture of the chloroplast containing hemiparasites did not differ significantly from non-parasitic plants and were characterised by well-developed grana with an extensive thylakoid system.
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