Phelipanche ramosa is a species of broomrape known by the common names hemp broomrape and branching broomrape. It is native to Eurasia and North Africa, but it is known in many other places as an introduced species and sometimes a noxious weed. It is a pest in agricultural fields, infesting crops including tobacco, potato, and tomato.
The plant produces many slender, erect stems from a thick root. The yellowish stems grow 10 to 60 centimeters tall and are coated in glandular hairs. The broomrape is parasitic on other plants, draining nutrients from their roots, and it lacks leaves and chlorophyll. Theinflorescence bears several flowers, each in a yellowish calyx of sepals and with a tubular white and blue to purple corolla.
The problems that the invasive, or parasitic weed, Orobanche ramosa, has on agriculture are important. The growth and reproduction of this weed has detrimental effects on our food supply. We have found evidence to help us control this weed. Orobanche and Phelipanche species (the broomrapes) are root parasitic plants, some of which cause heavy yield losses on important crops. The development of herbicides based on natural metabolites from microbial and plant origin, targeting early stages on parasitic plant development, might contribute to the reduction of broomrape seed bank in agricultural soils. Therefore, the effect of metabolites belonging to different classes of natural compounds on broomrape seed germination and radicle development was assayed in vitro. Among the metabolites tested, epi-sphaeropsidone, cyclopaldic acid, and those belonging to the sesquiterpene class induced broomrape germination in a species-specific manner. epi-Epoformin, sphaeropsidin A, and cytochalasans inhibited germination of GR24-treated broomrape seeds.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photos by George Konstantinou
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