Orobanche minor aka Common Broomrape

Orobanche minor belongs to the broomrape family, Orobanchaceae. It is a parasite: it lives on a host plant. Its English names include common broomrape and lesser broomrape. Others are devil's root, hellroot, herb bane, and hellweed. The RHS lists it as native to Britain and Ireland. Its wider native range runs from Europe to northern Iraq. It also spans Macaronesia and the Arabian Peninsula. The range includes southern tropical Africa, too. Kew puts it in the temperate climate group.

Plants For A Future calls it a perennial, which lives for years. It gives a height of about 1.6 feet (0.5 metres). Kew calls it a holoparasite, not a green plant living on its own. Its host thus plays a key part in its life. The account names clovers, or Trifolium species, as its main hosts. Other hosts are plants in the legume family with soft, not woody, stems. In Britain, these host links occur mainly in the south and east.

Plants For A Future lists meadow as its landscape setting. Its soil guide covers sand, loam, and heavy clay. The stated pH range runs from mildly acid to mildly alkaline. This range also includes neutral soil. These records suggest it can cope with a broad range of soils. They do not point to one narrow soil need. The account says it prefers moist ground. It can grow in light woodland shade or with no shade. These growing conditions do not remove its need for a host.

The flowers have both male and female organs. The evidence gives no bloom season or means of pollination. It gives no flower colour or fruit details, either. It does not describe the leaves or stems. Nor does it give a mature spread or growth rate. The accounts give no rating for cold hardiness. These gaps limit what we can say about its garden form.

Plants For A Future flags it as a possible weed. It lists no known food, medicinal, or other uses. It rates each use at zero out of five. The same source reports no known hazards. This does not mean that the plant is safe to eat. The evidence names no specific pests or diseases.