beech·drops

or beech-drops (bēch′drŏps′)

pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)

A brownish eastern North American plant (Epifagus virginiana) having scalelike leaves and whitish tubular flowers with brown-purple stripes. It is parasitic on the roots of the American beech tree, Fagus grandifolia.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

beechdrops

(ˈbiːtʃˌdrɒps)

pl n

(Plants) a North American flowering plant, Epifagus virginiana, which is parasitic on beech trees

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

beech•drops

(ˈbitʃˌdrɒps)

n., pl. -drops. (used with a sing. or pl. v.)

a low plant, Epifagus virginiana, of the broomrape family, without green foliage, parasitic upon the roots of the beech.

[1805–15, Amer.]

References in periodicals archive

Others, like beechdrops and squawroot, tap directly into tree roots extracting what they need to survive.

Woodland wildflowers on the edge

Parasitic beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana): a possible ant-pollinated species.

Population ecology study of Epifagus Virginiana (L.) W.P.C. Barton (Beechdrops) in Central Indiana

Known as beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana), with slender stems that rise as high as a foot above the leaves, its Latin name means "growing upon beech," an apt description of this plant's strategy.

Beechdrops has a more robust-looking cousin growing in the same mixed deciduous forests of New York: squawroot (Conopholis americana).

Parasitic plants of New York

Bartram: beechdrops. Infrequent beneath beeches in woods near hemlock groves; 638; C = 8.

The vascular flora of Turkey run State Park, Parke County, Indiana

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