Scientific name: Orobanche minor Sm.
Common name: Common Broomrape
Description
Habit: A perennial root-parasitic plant, to 60 cm high.
Stems: Erect, yellowish brown, often tinged with purple, often swollen at the base, without rhizomes.
Leaves: Alternate, without stipules, stalkless, lanceolate, undivided, untoothed, pointed, brownish and papery texture.
Flowers: Dull yellow often tinged with purple, zygomorphic, numerous, with bracts, in a long but slender terminal spike which is lax below but dense above; calyx divided deeply into 4 pointed teeth; corolla 12-18 mm, fused into a tube, 2-lipped, curved, upper lip shortly 2-lobed; stamens 4; ovary superior, stigma purple, rarely yellow.
Fruits: A capsule with minute seeds.
Habitat: Pastures and disturbed ground. Distribution: Frequent on Aran, rather rare elsewhere. Parasitic on Leguminosae and particularly Trifolium spp.
Native status: Not native
Of conservation interest: No