SPECIES DESCRIPTION
OROBANCHE PICRIDIS
Family and Genus:- See- OROBANCHACEAE/Sect. OROBANCHE/O. MINOR
Common Names:- Oxtongue broomrape
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Orobanche (Gr) Legume-strangler. (one species is parasitic on
legumes).
Picridis (Gr) Ox-tongue-like, bitter. Picris (a name used by the Greek
philosopher Theophrastus for a bitter herb).
General description:- Short to medium, sparsely hairy, yellowish perennial.
Stems:-
1) 10-70(-100) x 0·3-1 cm, variably swollen at the base, glandular-pubescent or
villous, yellowish, more or less tinged with purple, red or brown.
Leaves:-
1) Oblong, 20-25 mm, long-acuminate, glandular-pubescent.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, cylindrical, 7-30 cm, many-flowered, dense.
2) Bracts, long-acuminate, brownish-violet, deflexed at the apex, equalling or
exceeding the flower.
3) Calyx, segments unequally 2-fid to the middle, rarely entire, teeth long-
acuminate, glandular-pubescent, often violet, equalling or slightly exceeding
the corolla tube.
4) Corolla, 15-20 mm, tubular, erecto-patent, white or yellowish-white, often tinged
violet at the upper lip. All lobes, plicate at the margin, crenulate, glabrous.
a) upper lip, plicate-emarginate or bilobed, lobes broad, obtuse, patent.
b) lower lip, lobes, subequal.
5) Stamens, inserted, 3-5 mm above the base of the corolla tube.
6) Stigma, reddish-violet or purple.
Fruit:-
1) Corolla, 15-20 mm, subglabrous or glandular-puberulent throughout.
Key features:-
1) Corolla, 15-20 mm with large, strongly divergent lips, tubular to campanulate.
2) Stamens, inserted, 3-5 mm above the base of the corolla tube.
Habitat:- Rocky habitats and grassland.
Host genera:- Artemisia, Picris and other Compositae; also on species of Daucus
and Orlaya.
Distribution:- Rare and scattered across the Aegean. Rare with limited distribution
on Crete.
Flowering time:- May-July.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
