Hermit crab poop spreads a parasitic plant’s seeds

Hikers exploring the coastal forest on a tropical island near Okinawa, Japan, would be forgiven for thinking that Balanophora fungosa is a simple mushroom. They have dark caps and grow along the forest floor, but these are no harmless fungi—they’re parasitic plants that get their nutrients from the roots of nearby plants. Each yeasty-smelling B. fungosa produces up to one million tiny seeds covered in a dry fruit, but scientists had no idea how these seeds were dispersed. &ldquo