“…Studies on parasite-host interactions, co-speciation, and biogeography indicate that, in cases of highly developed specialization, the phylogeny of the parasites reflects that of their hosts (Johnson et al, 2003;Page, 2003). Most of the literature on formation of genetic races and processes of parasite speciation deals with parasitic animals, for example lice (Barker & Close, 1990;Hafner & Page, 1995), ticks (McCoy et al, 2001(McCoy et al, , 2005, or phytophagous insects (Feder et al, 2003;Diegisser et al, 2006). Although parasitic plants are important both ecologically and economically (Press & Phoenix, 2005), and share many characteristics with parasitic animals, evolutionary processes in parasitic angiosperms are still poorly known, and only a few genera, such as Arceuthobium (Nickrent & Stell, 1990;Jerome & Ford, 2002;Linhart et al, 2003) and Viscum (Zuber & Widmer, 2000), have been studied in detail.…”