Broomrape Family

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)
• 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).

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.

Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.

Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family