Farmers in 16 counties of North and South Carolina were anxiously watching their fields last week for a delicate, bright green plant that grows to be nine or ten inches high. It is a pretty plant, with gay red and orange flowers shaped something like violets. In South Africa, where it abounds, Boer farmers call it rooibloemetjie (little red flower) and vuurbossie (firebrand). In the U.S. it is witchweed (Striga asiatica), a parasitic plant that sucks the life sap of corn, sorghum, sugar cane and many other crops, leaving the plants as rustling ghosts...
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