Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

California broomrape

Orobanche californica

California broomrape
Photo: Eric in SF, CC BY-SA 3.0

California broomrape is a leafless, purple-to-pale-pink parasitic perennial that grows on the roots of other plants, mostly daisy-family hosts such as goldenrods and sagebrush. It cannot be grown like an ordinary garden plant because it needs a living host root to survive.

Family
Orobanchaceae (Orobanch family)
Grows as
Perennial
How easy
Hard
Native range
SW. British Columbia to NW. Mexico
Climate
temperate

About

Orobanche californica, known by the common name California broomrape, is a species of broomrape. It is a parasitic plant growing attached to the roots of other plants, usually members of the Asteraceae.

Where it grows

Orobanche californica is native to western North America from British Columbia and Idaho, through California and Nevada, to Baja California. It is found in many types of habitats. It has been noted to be associated with California goldenrod (Solidago californica) and sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).

Uses

The Paiute people of eastern California and the Great Basin used a decoction as a cold remedy and pulmonary aid.

Other Aphyllon plants

Broomrape · Chaparral broomrape · Flat-top broomrape · Clustered broomrape · Louisiana broomrape · Parish's broomrape · Conifer broomrape · Oneflowered broomrape · Rock Creek broomrape · Hillside broomrape

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Orobanche californica 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.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…