Common Broomrape

Description:

The O. minor is known under many names, including Small, Lesser, Common Orobanche or Broomrape; and Hellroot. The O. minor is herbaceous perennial, up to 50cm tall, and it comes in a wide variety of colors: here, I fell upon a large colony of yellow and purple varieties on edges of forest. The members of this genus are parasites, they don't produce chlorophyll and live attached (and dependant on) to their host, whom they rob of water and nutrients. The O. minor is not specialised; even though it prefer members of Fabaceae and Asteraceae families; in the end it attacks a large variety of hosts.

Habitat:

This is one of the most common species, native to South Europe, but very widely spread today, and observed in a wide variety of habitats; from forest to agricultural fields. Here, observed in large numbers on edges of beautiful Bagasse forest (deciduous, predominantly oak, forest) on France-Switzerland border, in a valley of lake Geneva, just in between Jura and Alps mountains ranges.