"Amborella", an understory plant in the wild, is in contact with shade- and moisture-dependent organisms such as algae, lichens and mosses. Some horizontal gene transfer between these species is not surprising. But the scale of such transfer has caused great surprise. Sequencing the "Amborella" mitochondrial genome showed that for every gene of its own origin, it has about six versions from the genomes from other plants and algae growing with or upon it. The evolutionary and physiological significance of this is not yet clear.