Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Stout and fleshy, 10-45 cm tall, simple or branching sparingly at base, viscid-puberulent throughout; stems brownish to purplish.

Leaves: Cauline bracts 5-10 mm long, obtuse to rounded.

Flowers: Inflorescence 5-20 cm long, spicate and densely flowered, branching into 2-3 axillary spikes; lowest flowers on slender pedicels longer than scales, calyx densely puberulent 5-10 mm long, lobes lance-attenuate, three to five times as long as cup; corolla 1.5-3 cm long, purplish within, palatal folds yellow, puberulent and gray-purple without, lips 4-8 mm long, upper lip erect, cleft at apex, lobes broadly to narrowly acute.

Fruits: Capsule

Ecology: Found on sandy desert flats; below 3,500 ft (1067 m); flowers February-May.

Distribution: s and c CA, s NV, s UT, AZ, NM, TX; south to n MEX.

Notes: Known to be parasitic on Hymenoclea and other composite shrubs. Distinct by the lack of, or very small pedicels to flowers; flowers subtended by bractlets; and the purple corolla lobes which narrow to a sharp tip.

Ethnobotany: The stalk, below the ground, was eaten cooked or raw by the Gila Pima; as were the roots.

Etymology: Orobanche is from Greek orobos, a kind of vetch, and anchone, choke or strangle because of the parasitic nature of the genus, cooperi is named for Dr. James Graham Cooper (1830-1902) a geologist. 

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015