OROBANCHACEAE

 

Annual or perennial somewhat fleshy herbs, root parasites, lacking chlorophyll leaves alternate, scale like; flowers solitary in a leaf or bract axile, bisexual, zygomorphic, calyx 2-5 lobed or divided the segments open or valvate; corolla straight or arcuate, usually bilabiate or obliquely so, 5-lobed, stamens epipetalous, 4, didynamous, anthers 2 celled, dehiscing longitudinally, occasionally one half anther undeveloped and sterile; pistil 1, ovary superior, unilocular or bilocular, the carpels 2 and median, the ovules numerous, anatropous, style 1, stigma 2-4 lobed; fruit a loculicidal capsule, often enveloped bu the persistent calyx, usually 2 valved and leathery, seeds minute, usually pitted or roughened, the embryo undifferentiated, the endosperm soft-fleshy and oily.