OROBANCHE CRENATA
Common Names:- Bean broomrape
Homotypic Synonyms:- None.
Meaning:- Orobanche (Gr) Legume-strangler. (one species is parasitic on
legumes).
Crenata (L) Notched, with small rounded teeth.
General description:- Short to medium, sparsely hairy, yellowish perennial.
Stems:-
1) Up to 50(-80) x 1·2 cm, slightly swollen at the base, sparsely villous, usually
yellowish, rarely purple.
Leaves:-
1) Up to 30 mm long, lanceolate, densely glandular-pubescent.
Flowers:-
1) Spike, up to 20(-50) x 4 cm, many-flowered. dense above, often lax below,
villous. Flowers fragrant.
2) Bracts, 15-25 mm linear- to ovate-lanceolate, long-acuminate, equalling or
exceeding the flowers.
3) Calyx, 10-20 mm; segments free, equalling the corolla tube, more or less
bidentate.
4) Corolla, 20-30 mm, subglabrous, wide, tubular or campanulate, papery, whitish,
often with bluish-violet veins.
a) upper lip, entire or emarginate, lobes, very broad, patent or recurved, plicate.
b) lower lip, middle lobe usually larger than the lateral, crenulate-dentate
and glabrous at margin.
5) Stamens, inserted (2-)3(-5) mm above the base of corolla tube, densely hairy
below.
6) Stigma, pale violet to whitish.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 10-12 mm.
Key features:-
1) Corolla, tubular or campanulate, not constricted above, lips large.
2) Stamens, inserted c. 3 mm above the base of the corolla tube.
Habitat:- Seasonally wet meadows, olive groves, fields. 0-700 m.
Host:- Usually parasitic on species of Legumes, e.g. Vicia faba.
Distribution:- Widespread throughout the Mediterranean region. Somewhat
restricted distribution on Crete.
Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton