OROBANCHACEAE

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1972, Flora Europaea. Volume 3. Diapensiacea to Myoporaceae, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 285

CLX. OROBANCHACEAE 2

Perennial (rarely annual) herbs without chlorophyll, parasitic on the roots of other phanerogamic plants (usually herbaceous dicotyledons). Stems erect, usually simple. Leaves alternate, scale-like, often succulent at first. Flowers in a terminal spike or raceme, rarely in a panicle or solitary. Calyx tubular, cup-shaped or 2-lipped. Corolla 5-lobed, 2-lipped or almost regular. Stamens 4, didynamous. Ovary superior, 1 -locular, with 2-4 parietal, often deeply lobed placentae; style single; stigma more or less 2-lobed. Fruit a loculicidal capsule; seeds small, numerous. It is impossible to delimit this family satisfactorily from the Scrophulariaceae , and it would seem that nothing but tradition maintains its separate status.

Literature; G. Beck von Mannagetta in Engler, Pflanzenreich

96(IV. 261): 1-348 (1930). 1 Flowers solitary 4. Phelypaea

1 Flowers in racemes, spikes or panicles

2 Corolla + regular, 5-lobed 1. Cistanche

2 Corolla distinctly 2-lipped

3 Upper lip of corolla much longer than the lower; stamens exserted 3. Boschniakia

3 Upper lip of corolla equalling or shorter than the lower; stamens included 2. Orobanche