OROBANCHACEAE (BROOM-RAPE FAMILY) 389 



CLOVER BROOM-RAPE 

 Orobdnche minor, J. E. Smith 



Other English names: Lesser Broom-rape, Chokeweed, Herb-bane, 



Clover Devil, Devil's Root, Hellroot. 

 Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: May to July. 

 Seed-time: June to August. 

 Range: New Jersey southward to North Carolina; locally in a 



few places in interior states. 

 Habitat : Clover fields. 



This pest, like the preceding species, was brought to this country 

 with the seeds of its host plant. The parasite is larger than the 

 plant on which it feeds, and its presence in any 

 abundance means ruin to the crop. 



Stem brownish yellow, rather stout, softly downy, 

 six to eighteen inches in height, without branches ; the 

 scales near the base are numerous and overlapping, 

 oblong-ovate in shape ; those above are smaller, more 

 distant, and acute. Flower-spike three to six inches 

 long, rather loose, each blossom subtended by one or 

 two lance-shaped bracts nearly as long as itself ; calyx 

 cleft to the base above and below, the divisions two- 

 parted, with long, awl-like points ; corolla about a half- 

 inch in length, with pale brownish yellow tube and 

 lips purple-tinged or lilac, the upper one incurved and 

 notched, the lower with three spreading, rounded lobes. 

 Capsule about a quarter-inch long, crammed with 

 abundant dust-like seeds, which, if allowed to ripen, 

 are sown far and wide by the winds and which, in 

 spite of their small size, have long vitality when in 

 the soil. (Fig. 270.) 



Mean, of control Z% 



Permit no seed to form. Stalks, with the host plants, JJjjJf "jjV 

 should be pulled as fast as they begin to bloom, and 

 be piled with straw or other litter, soaked with oil, and burned. 

 Under no circumstances should clover seed or hay from infested 

 fields be offered in market; such material should be used up on 



