Orobanche plants are more difficult to identify than you might think. The colour of the flower varies more than most books say. At first I thought this plant was O. alba but most texts give say this a short plant. The one photographed one was quite tall.

It has now been identified as O. pubescens which was my original guess because it seems to have many of the characteristics which include the shape of the lower lip, the purple stigma and the hairiness. However it is the "wrong" colour (purple and much deeper colours ) compared with many other pale yellow O. pubescens photos I've seen which only goes to show that colour means little in the Orobanche genus.

Many thanks to Holger Uhlich for identifying this plant.

Large Image	Large image floret close-up

Verge of country path, near Gharb, Gozo 24th March 2005

Added on 8th February 2007, amended 16th May 2008