OROBANCHE RAMOSA ssp. MUTELII

Family:- OROBANCHACEAE/Sect. TRIONYCHON

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Phelypaea ramosa

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

legumes).

Ramosa (L) Much branched, branching.

Mutelii Meaning uncertain, possibly after someone.

Stems:- 5-30(-40) x 0·15-0·4(-0·6) cm, swollen at the base, usually branched,

glandular-pubescent.

Leaves:- Alternate, 3-8(-10) mm, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute.

Flowers:- Inflorescence 2-25 cm, lax or dense, hairs tipped with small glands

(glandular-pubescent); bracts 6-8(-10) mm, ovate-lanceolate; bracteoles linear-

lanceolate, about equalling calyx; stems (pedicels) 0-5(-8) mm. Calyx 6-8 mm.

Calyx-teeth narrowing gradually to a point (acuminate), about equalling the tube.

Corolla (15-)18-22 mm, glandular-pubescent, suberect and inflated at base, erecto-

patent (between spreading and erect) and tubular-funnel-shaped (infundibuliform)

distally, pale to bright blue or violet; lower lip somewhat deflexed with suborbicular

to elliptical, entire or finely toothed (denticulate) lobes. Filaments hairless

(glabrous), or hairy at the base, inserted 3-6 mm above base of corolla; anthers

glabrous, or sparsely hairy at the base. Stigma white, cream or pale blue.

Fruit:- Capsule 6-7(-10) mm.

Host:- Parasitic on a wide variety of herbs.

Key features:-

1) Lobes of lower lip of corolla obtuse.

2) Corolla (15-)18-22 mm.

Habitat:- Seasonally damp spots in scrub, olive groves and ruderal habitats. 0-1500

m. Parasitic on a wide variety of herbs.

Distribution:- Fairly widespread throughout the Mediterranean region. Widespread

across Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

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.