An interesting group of plants - fully parasitic, burrowing into the roots of other plants and drawing all their nutrition from them. Hence they have no chlorophyll, therefore never are green. Not easy to distinguish between the different species (short of digging them up and seeing which plant is their host) but I think I've correctly identified these -
Common Broomrape, Orobranche minor, probably growing on clover -
- and how it appears for most of the year, just as a brown "stick" projecting from the soil -
To show the power of these here is an Ivy Broomrape, Orobranche hederae, that is attached to the roots of Ivy growing on the other side of this old, foot thick wall! Not a marvellous shot as I had to squeeze between a car and a dustbin to get close to it, but I thought it showed their incredible persistence....
And the heaviset infestation by Broomrape that I have ever seen is here, Ivy Broomrape again, on Ivy under a tree, hence the dappled light and the patchy exposure (the weak focus caused by me having to push through a prickly hedge- excuses, excuses) -
Fairly easy to collect seed from them and sprinkle it near any appropriate plant in your garden if you like parasitic plants.
Cheers, Chris.
Common Broomrape, Orobranche minor, probably growing on clover -
- and how it appears for most of the year, just as a brown "stick" projecting from the soil -
To show the power of these here is an Ivy Broomrape, Orobranche hederae, that is attached to the roots of Ivy growing on the other side of this old, foot thick wall! Not a marvellous shot as I had to squeeze between a car and a dustbin to get close to it, but I thought it showed their incredible persistence....
And the heaviset infestation by Broomrape that I have ever seen is here, Ivy Broomrape again, on Ivy under a tree, hence the dappled light and the patchy exposure (the weak focus caused by me having to push through a prickly hedge- excuses, excuses) -
Fairly easy to collect seed from them and sprinkle it near any appropriate plant in your garden if you like parasitic plants.
Cheers, Chris.
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