Claude dePamphilis

This first and (so far) only comprehensive treatise on Parasitic Plants is one of the true "classics" in the scientific literature of plant biology. It summarized all that was known at the time about this diverse collection of plants that is at the same time highly fascinating, biologically significant, and economically important. Kuijt provided critical analysis of plant anatomy, morphology, development, physiology, systematics, and considered them through an evolutionary perspective that strove to make sense out of all of them. Not only did he present many original ideas and testable hypotheses, he was also careful to indicate where knowledge was simply lacking. His book (and the hundreds of specific studies he has published on parasitic plants) has stimulated decades of research in plant biology, including my own, and promises to be as influential decades into the future. No one has attempted to repeat Kuijt's accomplishment, and possibly no one will succeed.