Parasitic herb 5 - 20 cm tall Stem: stout, erect, unbranched. Leaves: to 2 cm long, more than 3 mm wide, scale-like, triangular, overlapping, covering most of the stem. Flowers: numerous, borne on a spike resembling a pine cone and making up half or more of the shoot, subtended by bracts 8 - 13 mm long. Petals are pale yellowish, 8 - 14 mm long, and fused into a two-lipped tubular shape. Fruit: an egg-shaped, two-valved capsule with a persistent style, containing many seeds.
Similar species: Orobanche uniflora and Orobanche fasciculata are easy to distinguish by having only one to ten flowers per plant. Epifagus virginiana differs by having slender, branched stems with small (less than 3 mm wide), lance-shaped scales.
Flowering: mid May to mid June
Habitat and ecology: A parasite of oak tree roots.
Occurence in the Chicago region: native
Notes: The species in the Orobanchaceae family lack chlorophyll.
Etymology: Conopholis comes from the Greek words conos, meaning cone, and pholis, meaning scale.Americana means "from America."
Parasitic on several kinds of oaks, pale brown or yellowish throughout; stems stout, erect, 5-20 cm; lf-scales ovate or broadly lanceolate, to 2 cm; spike usually constituting half or more of the shoot, 1.3-2.8 cm thick, the bracts about equaling the 8-13 mm cal; cor 8-14 mm; 2n=40. Rich woods; N.S. to Fla., w. to n. Mich., Wis., Ill., and Ala. May, June.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.