The male Pine Cone

A Pine Cone is a scaly trimmed woody cone fruit of a coniferous tree. There are more than 100 types of coniferous trees. These produce both male and female cone fruits. The male pinecone is the smallest, contains pollen and only lives for a few weeks. The female pinecone is larger and contains (if fertilized) seeds.

What is scabies?

Scabies is an infection of the skin caused by a scabies mite. The Latin name for this is 'Sarcoptes scabiei'.

The females of the scabies mite dig small passageways in the top layer of the skin and lay their eggs in it. These eggs come out after three to four days. The animals are grown-up within 18 days. The faeces, the secretions, the eggs and certain other substances cause an allergic reaction to human skin. This reaction causes itching, blisters, bumps, redness and scaling. With a first infection, it takes two to six weeks until these reactions are visible/palpable.

A pest on grapes

Uncinula necator or powdery mildew, a basidiomycete, is a pest on grapes. Its septate hyphae forms a mycelium on the surface of the leaves similar to a spider web. Special hyphal branches, the haustoria, penetrate the host cells to absorb food substances, thereby weakening the grape and reducing the harvest.

A medicinal parasite

Mistletoe (Viscum album), sinkers in host tissue, longitudinal.

The evergreen, spherical shrub of about 1 m in diameter grows on different trees. As a semi-parasite the mistletoe assimilates with its leaf green. The sinkers of the mistletoe penetrate deep into the wood body of the host plants and withdraw only water and mineral salts from the host, but this causes the part above the infestation site to suffer. The opposite, oblong-ovate leaves evaporate only a little water due to their leathery texture.