Leaves converted into scales along stems, which are arranged alternately and overlap. Plant is a root parasite and has lost the ability to photosynthesize. With the loss of photosynthetic function, what had been the leaves converted into overlapping triangular scales adhering to the stem. The stems are really peduncles (the stalk supporting an inflorescence or flower cluster, and only part of the peduncle is visible above ground. It looks like a fleshy stem lined with scales (~2 cm thick), about 10-18 cm tall. Sometimes there is only 1 visible; other individuals have several. They may be branched. Underground, the plant has a root-attachment, which it uses to invade the root system of a host plant (it especially favors Artemisia tridentata but can exploit other Artemisia (sagebrush) and is believed to attack Eriogonum (California buckwheat) and Eriodyction (yerba santa). Flowers clustered at top of visible stems, the clusters varying a little in shape, from capitate (head or ball-shaped), corymbose (flat-topped), or racemose (stalk-like) and getting as long as 12 cm. Individual flowers are on pedicels (small stems connecting them to the main peduncle stem), ~0-4 cm long (shortening the higher the flowers are on the inflorescence). The flowers are tubular, ~2-5 cm long, with throats ~1 cm wide, somewhat glandular (sticky) and puberulent (fine fuzz or down). The corollas are split into 2 lips about 1-1.4 cm long, and these are then further subdivided. The upper lip is 2-lobed and erect; the lower lip is 3-lobed and spreading widely downward and outward. The lobes are narrow and tapering, especially the lower ones. The corolla can be a variety of colors, usually with a contrast from a duller yellowish or brownish exterior and a more vividly colored interior. The inner side of the corolla lobes range from yellow marked with reddish or brownish veins on the inside of the lobes or white, pink, or lavender with dark violet or purple veins. There are 2 pairs of stamens inside the corolla throat, and the stigma is split into 2 recurved lobes. Under the corolla, the calyx has 5 acutely tipped lobes ~1.5-2 cm long. Blooms May through July. Fruit is an internally valved capsule containing many very small seeds. Plant, with peduncles and inflorescences, is 4-35 cm tall, a perennial herb, sometimes considered a pseudosucculent, that is, a plant of succulent appearance but parasitic habits.
Orobanche californica (Orobanchaceae): California orobanche, California broomrape
The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.