Semi- or holoparasitic herbs with or without cholophyll, with a single large or many small haustorial connections to the roots of hosts plants
Distribution
Mostly cosmopolitan, concentrated in the temperate regions of Eurasia. A few species in the tropics and America
Floral characters
Inflorescences usually axillary or terminate, sometimes reduced to a single flower. Flowers bisexual, bilateral. Sepals usually 5, connate. Petals usually 5, connate. Corolla is 2-lipped, lobes a imbricate. $ Stamens didynamous. If 5th stamen is present then steril. Filaments adnate to corolla. Anthers are 2-locular, opening by 2 longitudinal slits. 1 locule sometimes reduced or modified. Anther sagittate at base. Pollen grains often tricolporate. 2 carpels, connate. Ovary is superior, stigma 2-lobed. A nectar disc is usually present around the base of ovary.
Leaf characters
Alternate or opposite arrangement, simple, often pinnately lobed to dissected. Sometimes reduced to scales. Entire to variousely toothed. Venation is pinnate
Stipules
absent
Fruit characters
Capsule, spticidal to locucidal, seeds are angular
Glands
absent
Hairs
present
Latex
absent
Uses
Absent, pest!
Chemical characters
Phenlic glucosids: iridoids and orobanchin
Distribution maps
(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):
Rehmannia (Orobanchaceae)
map: from 2011, in part
Lindenbergia (Orobanchaceae)
map: see Hjertson 1995
Orobanchaceae
map: from van Steenis & van Balgooy 1966; Hultén 1971; Meusel et al. 1978; Hong 1983
