Abstract:
Taxillus caloreas var.
fargesii, a semi parasitic perennial seed plant of Loranthaceae, is one of the devastating biological disasters in the forest of
Keteleeria evelyniana in Central Yunnan. For a comprehensive understanding of the occurrence of the parasitic and hyperparasitism, the degree of infection damage was evaluated through plot investigation, and the species were identified with morphological characteristics and multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) methods. The results showed that the parasitic plant of
K.
evelyniana was
T.
caloreas var.
fargesii, and the hyperparasitic plant was
Phacellaria rigidula, which is a kind of subshrub parasitic of Loranthaceae.
T.
caloreas var.
fargesii is very harmful to
K.
evelyniana, the infection rate was 64%, and the rate of parasitism was 56%. In addition, the disease index of
K.
evelyniana was 26.7 in severe hyperparasitism, and 58.4 in less hyperparasitism. This study reported for the first time that hyperparasitism occurred on
T. caloreas var.
fargesii in the
K.
evelyniana forest in Central Yunnan,
P.
rigidula can control the spread of the
T.
caloreas var.
fargesii to a certain extent. The
P.
rigidula is of great significance in the control of
T.
caloreas var.
fargesii as a natural biological control.