Clustered Broom-Rape
Orobanche fasciculata
Color: Yellowish or purple
Common name: Clustered Broom-Rape
Latin name: Orobanche fasciculata
Family: OROBANCHACEAE
Height: 2-8 inches
Description: Orobanche fasciculata is a parasite growing attached to the roots of other plants. This plant produces one or more stems from a thick root, growing erect. As a parasite taking its nutrients from a host plant, it lacks leaves and chlorophyll. It is variable in color, often yellowish or purple. The inflorescence is a raceme of up to 20 flowers, each on a stalk up to 15 centimeters long. Each flower has a calyx of hairy triangular sepals and a tubular corolla 1.5 to 3 centimeters long. The flower is yellowish or purplish in color.
Range: California Floristic Province, Great Basin Floristic Province, Desert Mountains
Habitat: Dry, generally ± bare places, generally on shrubs (especially Artemisia, Eriodictyon, Eriogonum )
Elevation: < 3300 m.
Flowering time: Apr–Jul
Notes: Orobanche fasciculata, a dicot, is a perennial herb (parasitic) that is native to California and is also found elsewhere in North America and beyond. Distribution outside California: to Yukon, c N. America, n Mexico. Photographed in Kern County, California.
We have an online wildflower field guide that is designed to help you identify desert wildflowers by color, scientific name, region and common name. The pictures are sized to work on the iPod, iPhone, iPad and similar devices. With your iPod or phone you will easily be able to identify wildflowers while in the desert. Links for downloads are on the bottom of the Wildflower Field Guide page.
Photo tips: Most digital point-and-shoot cameras have a macro function - usually symbolized by the icon of a little flower. When you turn on that function, you allow your camera to get closer to the subject, looking into a flower for example. Or getting up close and personal with a bug. More on desert photography.
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What's Blooming Now - Check the Wildflower Reports
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