Greenless Parasite. Orobanche caryophyllacea, Bedstraw Broomrape, Noordhollands Duinreservaat, Castricum, The Netherlands
Broomrape has no chlorophyl, the green 'pigment' that allows plants to make nutrients on which to live. So it has to get them elsewhere; thus Orobanche 'preys' (hence the name 'rape') on a range of roots of other plants to sustain itself. In the process, though, it remains 'albino', very white indeed in the green atmosphere of the dunes at this time of the year.
There are now lots of small stands of Broomrape in the Dune Reserve to the west of Castricum, north of Amsterdam. I find them a bit uncanny, even ghostlike, and wonder what they look like under a full Moon...
Greenless Parasite. Orobanche caryophyllacea, Bedstraw Broomrape, Noordhollands Duinreservaat, Castricum, The Netherlands
Broomrape has no chlorophyl, the green 'pigment' that allows plants to make nutrients on which to live. So it has to get them elsewhere; thus Orobanche 'preys' (hence the name 'rape') on a range of roots of other plants to sustain itself. In the process, though, it remains 'albino', very white indeed in the green atmosphere of the dunes at this time of the year.
There are now lots of small stands of Broomrape in the Dune Reserve to the west of Castricum, north of Amsterdam. I find them a bit uncanny, even ghostlike, and wonder what they look like under a full Moon...