In the Wild: Bee feeding at Broomrape

fabulous! thanks for the lovely little tutorial. I wonder if we have these plants down here? All the bees are getting lethargic and looking for a snug spot for winter. I brought a bee home from the nursery in the trunk of my car.. he must have been sleeping in one of the pots when I picked it off the shelf! Put the plants in the raised bed and he stayed on the sedum for hours...then disappeared.

Thank you Lori. I wouldn't be surprised if you do have this. It is parasitic living in the roots of mountain alder, Ms Verna Pratt says only Alder root, though that may be for this species only. I wish we were warm enough for bugs, my world has gone silent. Snow should start today or tomorrow if the moisture makes it up this far.

It would be treated as a weed. I believe all broomrape anywhere is a parasite in the root systems in the ground. These are just the blooms, like a mushroom to a fungus.