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Thyme Broomrape
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Thyme Broomrape
ative Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Thyme Broomrape
Botanical name: Orobanche alba    Family: Orobanchaceae (Broomrape family)
Synonyms: Orobanche epithymum

Thyme Broomrape is a parasitic annual or biennial herb, 15-30 cm tall, glandular-pubescent, slender, brownish in appearance, very variable in size. Flowers and stems are purplish-red when fresh, soon turning brown and dry-looking, like a dead plant, with no visible green parts. The plant has scales instead of leaves. Flowers are tubular, upper lip shallowly notched, lower lip divided into 3 equal lobes. Calyx has one tooth on each side of the flower. In many Broomrapes the sepal on each side of the flower is divided into two or more teeth. Thyme Broomrape is found in Europe, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Himalayas (Kashmir to Nepal), and Tibet, at altitudes of 2300-3400 m. Flowering: June-August.

Identification credit: Prashant Awale
Photographed enroute to Vasundhara falls, Uttarakhand.
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