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Orobanche cumana

AgroAtlas - Weeds - Orobanche cumana Wallr. - Sunflower Broomrape. Family Orobanchaceae, genus Orobanche. Sunflower Broomrape is a parasitic weed, completely devoid of chlorophyll, affecting sunflower plant roots. After occurrence on soil surface, the parasite has whitish stalk, later becoming violet, with bluish tubular flowers with a bent crown. Stalk is simple, branchless, 50 cm in height. Further it turns brown, forming fruits as double-fold bolls. About 40 bolls are formed on a stalk, each containing up to 2,000 seeds. The seeds remain viable in the soil up to 12 years. The Broomrape seeds intensively sprout under the influence of root secretions of sunflower, also some insusceptible plant species. The Broomrape sprouts penetrate into root vasa of the host-plant, developing further at its expense, strongly oppressing sunflower growth. The severity of crop sowing colonization by Broomrape changes by regions and years. For example, in 1981, 230 flowers of the parasite were registered on one plant in Komrat district of Moldova in some sunflower fields. Sunflower Broomrape is a highly specialized parasite of sunflower, though it can sometimes affect some representatives of the family Asteraceae. The parasite populations on sunflower have a number of physiological races.

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