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Mystery flower, can anyone identify?


Mystery flower, can anyone identify?

This picture was taken early May in a forest in France near a stream.



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It reminds me of Broomrape - a parasitic plant

7 May, 2012

 

Thank you Hywel, the parasitic plant clue has helped me. I have found it on the Kew Gardens website, it is a Parasitic Purple Toothwort.

The toothwort is a protocarnivorous plant. Most of the plant consists of a branched whitish underground stem closely covered with thick fleshy colourless leaves, which are bent over so as to hide the under surface; irregular cavities communicating with the exterior are formed in the thickness of the leaf. On the inner walls of these chambers are stalked hairs, which when stimulated by the touch of an insect send out delicate filaments by means of which the insect is killed and digested - courtesy of Wikipedia.

8 May, 2012



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