Orobanche ludoviciana (Louisiana Broom-rape) - photos and description
Looking straight down on plant.
Flowers have bracts beneath the sepals
Orobanche ludoviciana parasitic upon Artemisia campestris in above
photo.
General: Single-stemmed, thick, parasitic plants, with reddish-brown foliage. Plants pubescent with glandular hairs. Parasitic on the roots of other plants, typically species of Artemesia campestris.
Flowers: Flowers many, sessile in a dense spike, white-pink with purple tips, tubular shape, we measured flowers to 15 mm long.
Leaves: Scale-like, ovate, 1 cm long.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 25 cm(!), we've measured plants to 6 cm tall.
Habitat: Sandy grassland.
Abundance: Rare, ranked as an S3 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
Similar species: Could be mistaken for, Orobanche fasciculata. That plant has flowers on naked stalks, and no bracts beneath the calyx.
When and where photographed: Photos taken in July 8th, Douglas Provincial Park, about 200 km west of Regina, SK, and July 27th, gravel pit on the slopes of the Qu'Appelle Valley, about 150 km east of our home in Regina, SK.