
Orobanchaceae (or-o-ban-KA-see-ee)
Iconic Features
- All species partially or completely parasitic
- Plants lacking chlorophyll have leaves reduced to fleshy scales
- Flowers bilaterally symmetrical
Description (Jepson)
- Eudicotyledons (eudicots) – a major lineage of flowering plants including most plants traditionally described as dicots and generally characterized by
- 2 seed leaves (dicotyledon)
- Netted (reticulate) leaf venation
- Flower parts in fours and fives
- Pollen grains with 3 pores (tricolpate)
- Vascular bundles in stem arranged in a ring
- Taproot system
- Annual herbs or perennial herbs or shrubs
- Leaves
- Generally simple (not divided into leaflets)
- Reduced to fleshy scales in plants lacking chlorophyll (holoparasitic)
- Usually alternate (1 leaf at each junction with stem)
- Flowers
- Inflorescence (flower arrangement) in many forms
- Usually with bracts (modified leaves) at base
- Bisexual and bilaterally symmetrical flowers
- 2 fused upper petals and 3 fused lower petals, arranged like lips
- Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts)
- Inflorescence (flower arrangement) in many forms
- Fruit is a capsule (a dry, multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity) with many tiny seeds
Notes
- Approximately 2,060 species worldwide
- Includes owl’s-clover, paintbrush, warrior’s plume, cream sacs, and broomrapes
- Only plant family with both completely-parasitic (holoparasitic) and partially-parasitic (hemiparasitic) species
- Holoparasitic – plants lack chlorophyll and depend on host for nutrition (e.g. clustered broomrape)
- Hemiparasitic – plants have chlorophyll, but take some water and nutrients from other plants, sometimes species-specific hosts (e.g. warrior’s plume)
- Modified roots (haustoria) grow into the host plant
- Distinct from myco-heterotrophs, such as coralroot orchids, which also lack chlorophyll but have a symbiotic relationship with fungi
- Some species have significant economic impacts by damaging commercial crops
- Branched broomrape (Phelipanche ramose), which is especially damaging to tomatoes, causing up to 80% loss in Chilean tomato crops. has recently re-emerged as a threat in California (Osipitan et al. 2020)
- Scientific name from the included genus Orobanche, from the Greek orobos, “a vetch,” and anchone, “strangle,” alluding to its parasitic nature
- Common name from the word “broom,” referring to various shrubs in the Pea family, and the Latin rāpum, “tuber”; thus referring to the parasitizing of broom roots by members of this family
- Represented by 13 species at Edgewood
Specific References
Osipitan, O.A., et al. 2020, Aug. 12. Getting familiar with branched broomrape: A parasitic weed in California processing tomato. UC Weed Science. University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR).
Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family




