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chaparral broomrape

Habit Plants simple, sometimes branched, 8–30 cm, stout, base enlarged.
Roots

relatively conspicuous (forming a globular mass), slender or stout, branched or unbranched.

Leaves

numerous, large and imbricate proximally, appressed or slightly spreading;

blade lanceolate, 5–10 mm, margins entire, apex acute, surfaces glabrous.

Inflorescences

dense, pyramidal, thyrsoid panicles, dark purple-brown, imbricately branched, cinereous- to ferruginous-puberulent, hairs eglandular;

flowers numerous;

bracts strongly reflexed, lanceolate-subulate, 3–5 mm, apex acuminate, puberulent.

Pedicels

0–5 mm, much shorter than plant axis, sometimes adnate to stem for a portion of their length or flattened;

bracteoles 2.

Flowers

calyx dark purple, weakly bilaterally symmetric, 6–11 mm, divided into 5 unequal lobes, cleft to base on adaxial side, otherwise deeply lobed, lobes attenuate, puberulent;

corolla 10–18 mm, tube dark purple, wine colored, or dark gray, sometimes dark pink, slightly constricted above ovary, ± straight, puberulent;

palatal folds not prominent, pale yellow, glabrous;

lips purple to dark purple or wine colored, sometimes dark pink or with darker pink to purple veins, sometimes internally variegated with white, dark gray externally, abaxial lip spreading, 2–4 mm, lobes narrowly oblong or oblong-lanceolate, apex acute, often bluntly pointed, adaxial lip erect, spreading at tip, 2–4 mm, lobes triangular to oblong-triangular, apex acute, sometimes with a minute tooth;

filaments glabrous, anthers included, minutely apiculate at base, glabrous or sparsely pubescent.

Capsules

narrowly ovoid, 5–6 mm.

Seeds

0.3–0.5 mm.

2n

= 48.

Orobanche bulbosa

Phenology Flowering mid Apr–Jul.
Habitat Chaparral.
Elevation 150–2000 m. (500–6600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Orobanche bulbosa is endemic to chaparral in California and northern Baja California, Mexico, distributed throughout the range of its host, Adenostoma fasciculatum (Rosaceae).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 17, p. 475.
Parent taxa Orobanchaceae > Orobanche
Sibling taxa
O. arizonica, O. californica, O. cooperi, O. corymbosa, O. fasciculata, O. ludoviciana, O. minor, O. multiflora, O. parishii, O. pinorum, O. ramosa, O. riparia, O. robbinsii, O. uniflora, O. valida, O. vallicola
Synonyms Phelypaea tuberosa, Aphyllon tuberosum, Myzorrhiza tuberosa
Name authority Beck: Biblioth. Bot. 19: 83. (1890)
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