Habit: Annual, perennial herb, not green (holoparasites), generally glandular-puberulent distally; root attachment occasionally tuber-like.
Stem: simple or branched.
Inflorescence: generally +- spike-like (proximal flowers often short-pedicelled or on short branches), generally dense; flowers generally > 20; bracts generally lanceolate to deltate (wider on peduncle); bractlets 2.
Flower: calyx lobes 4, subequal, cylindrical to campanulate; corolla blue to purple, upper lip erect to reflexed, 2-lobed, lower lip 3-lobed, spreading; anthers white; stigma white, lobes generally 2.
Fruit: 2-valved, opening at top; style deciduous.
Seed: < 0.6 mm.
Species In Genus: ca. 50 species: Mediterranean, Europe, Asia.
Etymology: (Greek: Phelipeaux's strangler, from parasitic habit, for Louis Phelipeaux, Count of Ponchartrain, 1643--1727)
Jepson eFlora Author: Adam C. Schneider & Alison E.L. Colwell
Reference: Joel 2009 Weed Res. 49:6--7.
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
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