Plants behaving badly: Beech-drops (Epifagus virginiana) are parasitic plants that grow on the roots of beech trees. They only emerge above ground to flower. Beech-drops lack chlorophyll as they obtain all their nutrients from the host trees with most of their life spent underground attached to the tree root. In this way they can survive in the deep shade of the forest floor. The flowering plants are about 20 to 30 cm tall and look like dead sticks until backlit, when the delicacy of their flowers appears.