Orobanche bulbosa

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.

Phenology: Flowering mid Apr–Jul.
Habitat: Chaparral.
Elevation: 150–2000 m.

Calif., Mexico (Baja California)

Discussion

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

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa