In an extreme example of botanical body-snatching, a rust fungus invades a host plant and forces it to play a mating game for the fungus, which often kills the host, according to UC Davis postdoctoral fellow Barbara "Bitty" Roy. In a recent issue of the journal Nature, Roy describes for the first time how a fungus commandeers native plants commonly known as rock cress, forcing its host plants to create counterfeit flowers that the fungus uses for its flower-like reproductive process. Taking over the host's cell-making machinery, the fungus radically redirects the plant's energy to send up a stem with petal-like leaves completely unlike the plant's natural flower. The fungus infuses the false flower with a bright yellow color, a sweet odor and a sugary nectar. To many insects, including bees, butterflies and flies, the fake flower apparently looks, smells and tastes as good as the nearby buttercups, yellow violets and wild yellow parsley it mimics. The flowering of the rust infection almost always prevents the plant from producing its own flower and is usually lethal to the host plant, and the false flowers likely affect the entire plant community by altering pollinator movement.