Cistanche phelypaea Seeds | Cistanche
LATIN NAME: Cistanche phelypaea
COMMON NAME: Cistanche, Yellow Broomrape
Plant Profile
Cistanche phelypaea is a yellow parasite of coastal sand, with no green tissue at all and no roots of its own beyond the connection to its host. It grows on dunes and sandy flats around the Mediterranean, from Portugal and Morocco through Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and the Levant to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, always within reach of the roots of a shrub. The flowering stem pushes through the sand in spring, thick, fleshy and covered in overlapping scales, reaching 20 to 60 cm, and carrying a dense spike of yellow, tubular flowers with a purple tinge at the mouth. There is no stem below ground and no leaf above it: the plant is a lump of tissue attached to the host root. After flowering it turns brown and woody and persists for months. The hosts are salt-tolerant shrubs, mainly Atriplex, Suaeda, Nitraria and Tamarix, and the parasite is rarely found far from them.
Science & Biotechnology
Cistanche phelypaea is a holoparasite in the broomrape family, which means it has lost the ability to photosynthesise and takes all its carbon, water and minerals from a host plant through a specialised connection called a haustorium. The seed is tiny and can only germinate when it detects strigolactones, the hormones leaking from a host root, which is why the species cannot be grown without its host and why it appears in the same place year after year. Once attached, the parasite sends a wedge of tissue into the host’s xylem and taps the water stream, and the host’s growth is measurably reduced. The yellow colour comes from carotenoids and flavonoids retained in the absence of chlorophyll, and the flowers are pollinated by bees and flies attracted by nectar. The plant accumulates salts and unusual phenylethanoid glycosides, compounds that are the basis of its medicinal use and the reason related species are now cultivated in China.
Uses & Benefits
Cistanche phelypaea is used in North African and Middle Eastern medicine as a tonic and an astringent, applied to wounds and taken for stomach complaints; it belongs to the same genus as the Chinese rou cong rong, which is one of the most heavily traded medicinal plants in Asia. The young flowering stems are eaten cooked in some coastal communities, though they are bitter and stringy. The dried plant is sold in local markets in Egypt and the Maghreb, often mixed with other species. For gardeners it has no garden use except as a curiosity in a dune garden, and even there it cannot be planted deliberately without a host. Its real importance is ecological: it is part of the dune flora that holds sand in place, and its presence indicates an intact shrub community. Over-collection for medicine is a local concern in parts of Egypt and Libya.
Growing from Seed
This species cannot be grown from seed in a normal pot. Sow it beside an established host, scattering the dust-like seed over the soil within a metre of the host’s stem and watering it in; the seed needs the host’s root exudates to germinate, and success is unpredictable. Use a host that grows in your climate, such as Atriplex halimus or Tamarix, and plant it a year before you sow the parasite. Keep the ground sandy, open and free of competition, and do not dig it over afterwards. Germination may take two seasons, and the first stems appear close to the host crown. Do not fertilise: rich soil favours the host’s foliage at the expense of the parasite. In cool, wet climates the attempt usually fails, and the plant is best admired in the field.
Our Take
A yellow desert parasite that lives entirely off a shrub’s roots. Fascinating, and all but impossible to cultivate on purpose.
Related Reading
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