Alectra orobanchoides
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record
Image 1
Habit with flowers
05 Apr 2009
Image 2
Habit with flower
05 Apr 2009
Image 3
Habit with flowers
05 Apr 2009
Image 4
Stem
05 Apr 2009
Image 5
Stem
05 Apr 2009
| Family: | Scrophulariaceae |
| Full name: | Alectra orobanchoides Benth. |
| ID status: | ID not 100% certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Verfblommetjie |
| English common name(s): | Kirk's tobacco witchweed |
| Synonym(s): | Alectra heyniae (Dinter) Dinter Alectra kilimandjarica Hemsl. Alectra kirkii Hemsl. Alectra parvifolia (Engl.) Schinz Alectra welwitschii (Hiern) Hemsl. accepted by FSA Celsia parvifolia Engl. Melasma orobanchoides (Benth.) Engl. Melasma parviflorum K.Schum. Melasma welwitschii Hiern Nigrina orobanchoides (Benth.) Kuntze Orobanche heyniae Dinter Orobanche parviflora E.Mey. ex Steud. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Erect hemiparasitic herb, up to 45 cm tall. Stems branching near the base, often blackish or purple-red and fleshy. Leaves small, usually less than 1 cm long, appressed and scale-like or spreading near the inflorescences, lanceolate-oblong to ovate-oblong. Flowers in the axils of leaves or leaf-like bracts, together forming a spike-like inflorescence, yellow to orange, often with dark purple-red lines. (from Flora of Zimbabwe website) Annual herb 8–45 cm high; stems often dark crimson to purple-red, erect, simple, but with several branches arising from near the base, terete with ridges, puberulous to glabrous; roots and basal part of stem orange. Leaves opposite or alternate, sessile, somewhat reduced, embracing the stem or spreading, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 4–10(–15) mm long, 2–5(–7) mm wide, base shortly cuneate, apex acute to obtuse, margins entire to shortly toothed, puberulous to hispid to hispid-scabrid on both surfaces, the larger leaves with 5 veins, obscure in smaller leaves. Inflorescence of terminal racemes, flowers solitary in the axils of leaf-like bracts, usually in the upper half of stems, but also whole stem floriferous; bracts lanceolate to linear-oblong, 3–6 mm long, entire; bracteoles linear, 2–5 mm, acute, shortly ciliate, hispid; pedicels 2.5–3 mm, puberulous. Calyx campanulate, 4–6 mm long, veins clear, puberulous to hispid; lobes purple tinged, triangular, 2–3 mm, obtuse, ciliate. Corolla yellow to orange with red-brown to purple veins, 8–12 mm long, lobed above with subequal rounded lobes, lobes often thickened on the margins, scabrid. Stamens unequal; filaments hairy; anthers not apiculate. Capsule ovoid to subglobose, 4.5–6(–9) mm long, 3–6 mm in diameter, glabrous. (from JSTOR website) Erect herb, 10–45 cm tall; stems branched from or near to base, or simple, shortly hispid-pubescent to subglabrous, rarely not drying black. Leaves 3.5–9(13) x (1)1.5–2 mm, appressed to subappressed or spreading, opposite or alternate, lanceolate, lanceolate-oblong to ovate-oblong, acute or obtuse, entire to crenate or remotely shortly toothed, sessile throughout, hispid or hispid-scabrid. Flowers solitary in axils of leaves or leaf-like bracts, pedicellate; pedicels 1–1.5 mm long. Bracts leaf-like 3–6.5 x 1–2 mm, linear to oblong, hispid-pubescent. Bracteoles 2–4(5) x 0.25–1 mm, linear to filiform, shortly ciliate to glabrous. Calyx 4–6(7) mm long, shortly hispid; lobes 1.5–2(3) mm long, broadly triangular, obtuse, margin frequently thickened and scabrid. Corolla yellow to orange, dark purple striated, longer than calyx, lobes rounded. Stamens unequal; filaments slightly to heavily bearded; anthers obtuse, not apiculate. Capsule 4–6.5(9) x 3.25–6 mm, broadly ovoid to subglobose, glabrous. (from JSTOR website) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie |
| Content last updated: | 22 Nov 2011 |
