Purple witchweed

''Striga hermonthica'', commonly known as purple witchweed or giant witchweed, is a hemiparasitic plant that belongs to the family Orobanchaceae. It is devastating to major crops such as sorghum and rice . In sub-Saharan Africa, apart from sorghum and rice, it also infests maize , pearl millet , and sugar cane .

''Striga hermonthica'' has undergone horizontal gene transfer from ''Sorghum'' to its nuclear genome. The ''S. hermonthica'' gene, ''ShContig9483'', is most like a ''Sorghum bicolor'' gene, and additionally shows significant but lesser similarity to a gene from ''Oryza sativa''. It shows no similarity to any known eudicot gene.