How a tomato plant foils a dreaded vampire vine
Dodder sucks the life out of many crops, but one has a gene for fighting back
![Cuscuta reflexa](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/090316_notebook_itsalive_main.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
VICIOUS VINE One of the dodder vines, Cuscuta reflexa, twines over neighboring plants and sucks the life out of them — unless they have a wooden-stake gene.
Shijan Kaakkara/Wikimedia Commons