Taxonomy
Family: Orobanchaceae
Habitat
Occurs in a variety of slightly disturbed habitats, mostly on infertile soil with sparse vegetation
Associates
Distribution
Me and PA to MN and IA, north of 40° latitude.
Morphology
Hemiparasitic annual; stems glabrous or nearly so, simple or branched; leaves linear; pedicels, 1-4 mm; calyx lobes 2-3.5 mm long, 0.4-1 times as long as the tube; corolla 1-2(-2.3) cm long, the upper lobes only slightly spreading; pollen sacs 1.4-2 mm.
Notes
Flowers August to October
Wetland indicator: NA
This species is sometimes treated as a variety of A. purpurea (var. parviflora) since it differs mainly in size (corollas mostly 2 cm or less long), although the lobes of the calyx are relatively long relative to A. purpurea. I took this photo in northeastern IL many years ago and recall at the time that the plant appeared to be a diminutive A. purpurea. The plant behind it is Salix discolor which has leaves mostly 1.5-3.5 cm wide.
References
Gleason, Henry A.
and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States
and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
© Michael Hough 2018 |