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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbam here. If you visit Yakushima, Japan, you'll have

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Speaker 1: the chance to encounter the subtropical islands most popular attraction,

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Speaker 1: an ancient forest of craggy cedar trees with massive trunks

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Speaker 1: that reach more than sixteen feet that's five meters in diameter.

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Speaker 1: But don't spend all your time looking up into the

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Speaker 1: leafy canopy. There's likely to be a plant at your

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Speaker 1: feet that's just as interesting. Thanks to one observant scientist,

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Speaker 1: we now know the area is also home to one

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Speaker 1: of the world's smallest and most unique parasitic plants. Back

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Speaker 1: in sweet Suga Kenji, then a project associate at the

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Speaker 1: Kobe University Graduate School of Science, canvas to the island

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Speaker 1: for plant specimens with photographer Yamashita hiro Aki. In the process,

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Speaker 1: Kenji came across a diminutive and unfamiliar plant. Ken She

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Speaker 1: suspected the plant, just five centimeters that's two inches in height,

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Speaker 1: with cabernet colored stems and buds, was a mico heterotrophic plant,

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Speaker 1: so he collected it for further examination. These parasitic plants

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Speaker 1: get their name from the unusual way they obtain nutrients.

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Speaker 1: They basically outsource photosynthesis to a fungus. Most plants rely

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Speaker 1: on photosynthesis, a process by which they transform energy from

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Speaker 1: the sun into chemical energy that serves as a nutrient source.

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Speaker 1: The parasitic plant collected by Kenji doesn't need photosynthesis to survive.

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Speaker 1: It evolved in such a way that it obtains all

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Speaker 1: its water, minerals, and carbohydrates from fungi. In this case,

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Speaker 1: the plant's root system takes what it needs from fungi

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Speaker 1: on ancient tree roots, even if the roots are all

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Speaker 1: that remain in now deforested areas. It's a symbiotic relationship.

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Speaker 1: Another example of this behavior is the parasitic plant Raphaelisia arnaldi,

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Speaker 1: colloquially called a corpse flower because its smell has been

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Speaker 1: compared to rotting flesh. It steals water and nutrients from

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Speaker 1: the roots of nearby vines, eventually creating a massive blossom.

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Speaker 1: The ability of plants like this newly identified one in

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Speaker 1: Japan has been one of the most intriguing and secretive

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Speaker 1: processes in botany's history. The only time these newly discovered

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Speaker 1: plants appear above ground is when they briefly flower or fruit,

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Speaker 1: making it exceedingly difficult to find or study them. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by

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Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. For more on this and other intriguing and

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Speaker 1: secretive topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot

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Speaker 1: com