Hyobanche

Hyobanche, a photo by andiwolfe on Flickr.

Hyobanche is a small genus of holoparasitic plants (plants that can't make their own food and depend on another plant for all their nutrition), native to southern Africa. I've been studying this interesting genus for quite a long time, and it is the motivation for my field seasons in South Africa.

After working on the biology and systematics of this genus for so long, I've come to appreciate it more each field season. This collection site was at DeHoop Nature Reserve, along the southern coast of South Africa. It's nestled in with some restios, but the host is most likely to be Metalasia.