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Cistanche deserticola
Desert broomrape is a leafless, fleshy, parasitic perennial that lives on the roots of saxaul shrubs in desert sand. It cannot be grown as a normal garden plant and needs its specific host to survive.
Cistanche deserticola is a holoparasitic member of the plant family Orobanchaceae, commonly known as desert-broomrape.
The plant lacks chlorophyll and obtains its nutrients and water in a parasitic fashion from the black saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron) and white saxaul (Haloxylon persicum).
Cistanche deserticola is widely distributed in China's deserts including the provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi, and Qinghai, and the Autonomous Regions of Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cistanche deserticola by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
