OROBANCHE LAVANDULACEA

Family:- OROBANCHACEAE/Sect. TRIONYCHON

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Phelypaea ramosa

Meaning:- Orobanche (Gr) Legume-strangler. (one species is parasitic on

legumes).

Lavandulacea (L) Resembling Lavandula.

Stems:- 15-60 x 0·4-0·7 cm, swollen at the base, simple or branched, glandular-

pubescent.

Leaves:- Leaves 7-12 mm, ovate-lanceolate, narrowing gradually to a point.

(acuminate).

Flowers:- Inflorescence (6-)12-30 cm, lax or dense, glandular-hairy; bracts 7-10(-

12) mm, ovate-lanceolate; bracteoles linear-lanceolate, slightly shorter than the

calyx. Calyx 6-8 mm, usually blue; teeth equalling or slightly longer than the tube,

triangular with an awl-shaped (subulate) apex. Corolla 16-22 mm, glandular-hairy,

suberect at the base, spreading (patent) and narrowly bell-shaped (campanulate)

distally with strongly divergent lips, white at the base, bright blue distally; lobes of

lower the lip suborbicular, finely toothed (denticulate). Filaments glabrous or

sparsely hairy, inserted c. 6 mm above the base of the corolla; anthers hairy.

Stigma white or yellowish.

Fruit:- Capsule 6-7 mm.

Host:- Usually parasitic on Bituminaria bituminosa

Key features:-

Habitat:- Mixed scrub, olive groves, roadsides. 0-500(-900) m.

Distribution:- Few records from mainland Greece. Widespread in the

Mediterranean region, canary Islands and SW Asia eastwards to Iran. Rare on

Crete known from only a few scattered locations.

Flowering time:- (Mar-)Apr-May.

Photos by:- Richard Akesson.

FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

OROBANCHACEAE

General description:- Perennial (rarely annual) herbs without chlorophyll, parasitic

on the roots of other phanerogamic plants (usually herbaceous dicotyledons).

Stems:- Erect, usually simple.

Leaves:- Alternate, scale-like, often succulent at first.

Flowers:- In a terminal spike or raceme, rarely in a panicle or solitary. Calyx

tubular, cup-shaped or 2-lipped. Corolla 5-lobed, 2-lipped or almost regular.

Stamens 4, arranged in two pairs of unequal length (didynamous). Ovary superior,

1-locular, with 2-4 parietal, often deeply lobed placentae; style single; stigma more

or less 2-lobed.

Fruit:- A capsule, splitting into cells, along the midrib or dorsal suture (loculicidal

capsule); seeds small, numerous.

OROBANCHE

General description:- Perennial, biennial or annual.

Stems:- Stout or slender, simple or branched.

Leaves:- Numerous.

Flowers:- Usually in dense spikes or racemes. Bracteoles, if present, attached to

(adnate) to the calyx. Calyx with cylindrical to bell-shaped (campanulate) tube and

4(-5) teeth, or divided, usually deeply, into 2 lateral segments, which may be entire

or bifid. Corolla strongly 2-lipped; lower lip 3-lobed, at least as long as the upper.

Stamens included. Placentae 4, variably lobed.

Sect. TRIONYCHON

Stems:- Simple or branched.

Flowers:- Stemmed (pedicellate) or stemless (sessile), with 2 bracteoles attached

to (adnate) to the calyx. Calyx with cylindrical to bell-shaped (campanulate) tube

and 4 subequal teeth, rarely with a fifth, much smaller tooth. Corolla white, cream,

blue or violet, constricted below the middle near the insertion of the filaments; upper

lip 2-lobed.