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Striga gesnerioides
Also called Indigo Witchweed, Tobacco Witchweed, Purple Witchweed, Purple Witchweed / Cowpea Witchweed
Cowpea witchweed is a root parasite that grows on the roots of host plants, mainly cowpea and related legumes, and is a serious pest of subsistence crops in Africa. It is not grown as a garden plant; the key to 'growing' it is that it depends entirely on a host and cannot be cultivated on its own.
Striga gesnerioides, the cowpea witchweed, also called the indigo, purple, or tobacco witchweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae. It is native to Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Subcontinent, and it has been introduced to Florida. An erect subshrub, it is found in the seasonally dry tropics. As its common name suggests, it is a serious root hemiparasite of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), and related species, especially affecting subsistence farmers.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Striga gesnerioides 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.
