Aphyllon validum

Family: Orobanchaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS Listed

Broomrape is a California native perennial found in mountain and desert bioregions at elevations between 6 to 35 centimeters. Flowering from late spring to early summer, this plant produces distinctive purple flowers with acute lips 3 to 5 millimeters long, creating delicate inflorescences up to 2 to 3 centimeters wide. Growing with generally a single dark purple stem that is glandular-puberulent, the plant has slender to stout branches with occasionally enlarged bases. Its flower structure features a calyx 5 to 11 millimeters long with subequal linear-triangular lobes. The plant's unusual parasitic nature and glandular characteristics make it a unique component of California's native plant communities.

California counties: Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, Tehama

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.