Family Orobanchaceae
Description: Annual, biennial or perennial herbs, (rarely) shrubs, or (not in Australia) climbers, with or without chlorophyll, partly (hemiparasitic) or wholly (holoparasitic) parasitic. Rhizomatous or tuberous, with rhizomes forming swollen rootlets (haustoria) where attached to roots of the host plant. Stems ascending to erect. Indumentum various; hairs usually simple, sometimes glandular, when glandular usually lacking vertical partitions.
Leaves mostly opposite, sometimes alternate (usually towards apex of plant), or leaves absent or reduced to scales, petiolate or sessile, simple; margin entire, toothed or pinnately lobed; stipules absent.
Inflorescence terminal or axillary, a raceme or spike, or sometimes flowers solitary. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic or sometimes almost actinomorphic (Buchnera). Calyx with 2–5 lobes, often unequally divided. Corolla usually 5-lobed, salverform or campanulate, hooded or 2-lipped. Stamens 4, often with 2 unequal pairs (didynamous); filaments free from each other but adnate to petals, alternating with corolla lobes; anthers dorsifixed,sometimes basally awned, dehiscing by 2 longitudinal slits or by a single apical pore (some Euphrasia), sometimes with hairs present; 1 staminode sometimes present. Ovary superior; nectary disc usually present around the base of ovary; carpels mostly 2 (sometimes 3–5, not in N.S.W.); locules 1 or 2 (or as many as carpels); placentation axial or parietal; style 1, simple; stigma capitate, clavate or bilobed; ovules many.
Fruit a capsule; dehiscence loculicidal or septicidal. Seeds numerous, minute; testa often ornamented; endosperm present.
Distribution and occurrence: Temperate to tropical, cosmopolitan. East South America, Eastern Australia and New Zealand. World 99 genera; >2000 species. Australia 10 genera c. 44 species, native and naturalised.
External links:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Orobanchaceae, Order: Lamiales)
Wikipedia
Text by Louisa Murray; updated by Kerry Gibbons, 13 Jun. 2023.
Taxon concept: APG IV; V. Stajsic, Flora of Australia Online; N. Walsh, VicFlora [both accessed 13 Jun. 2023]; Kadereit, J.W. (2004) The Families and Genera of Vasdcular Plants. p 405.
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Castilleja
| | Key to the genera | |
| 1 | Leaves scale-like; stem, leaves, bracts and calyx brown | Orobanche |
| 1 | Leaves conspicuous, not scale-like; stem, leaves, bracts and calyx green | 2 |
| 2 | Calyx spathe-like, compressed, split down the lower edge, 5-toothed or entire at apex | Centranthera |
| Calyx not compressed, equally cleft between the lobes or sepals, 3–5-lobed or toothed
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Leaves without glandular hairs, but with other hair types | 4 |
| Leaves with glandular hairs and often on other parts of the plant; calyx tubular to cup-shaped, 4-lobed or toothed; corollas various with lobes uneven
Back to 2 | 5 |
| 4 | Hairs on leaves retrorse and non-glandular; calyx tubular, 10-veined, 5-toothed; corolla trumpet shaped lobes more or less equal | Buchnera |
| Hairs on leaves antrorsely scabrid with white crystalline hairs, calyx 5-ribbed; corolla tubular with short spreading lobes
Back to 3 | Striga |
| 5 | Upper corolla lobes recurved; calyx 4-lobed | Euphrasia |
| Upper corolla lobes pointed outwards; calyx 4-toothed
Back to 3 | 6 |
| 6 | Capsules oblong; seeds smooth or finely reticulate, c. 0.5 mm long | Parentucellia |
| Capsules globose; seeds ribbed, scalariform between ribs, c. 0.7 mm long
Back to 5 | Bartsia |
|
