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

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

Forget garlic.