OROBANCHACEAE (BROOM-RAPE FAMILY) 389 
CLOVER BROOM-RAPE 
Orobénche 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.) 
Fie. 270. 
— Clover 
Means of control Bisoni-tape 
Permit no seed to form. Stalks, with the host plants, (O7obanche 
should be pulled as fast as they begin to bloom, and PERO: As 
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 
