Scientific name: Orobanche alba Stephan ex Willd.
Common name: Thyme Broomrape
Description
Habit: A perennial root-parasitic plant, to 25 cm high.
Stems: Erect, purplish red, often swollen at the base, without rhizomes.
Leaves: Alternate, without stipules, stalkless, lanceolate, undivided, untoothed, pointed, brownish and papery texture.
Flowers: Creamy yellow, often tinged with red, zygomorphic, few, with bracts, in a short terminal spike; calyx divided deeply into 4 pointed teeth; corolla fused into a tube, 2-lipped, curved, upper lip shortly 2-lobed, lower lip fringed with short glandulous hairs; stamens 4; ovary superior, stigma reddish-purple.
Fruits: A capsule with minute seeds.
Habitat: Limestone pavement, short grassland and fixed dunes.Distribution: Very local. Parasitic to Thymus praecox.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: Yes