Flower ID please

[Wicksey]

Anybody know what this is?



It appeared once before a few years ago for the first time and has just popped up again this year. It hasn't got any leaves but just a hairy stem with these flowers on.



(Sorry can't get the picture to come out any bigger)

[Enrique]

If you click on the picture it opens up in another Tab and is LARGE..............

[alisonb]

I think it might be an agastache. They can grow tall, several feet. Try googling images and see what you think

[Wicksey]

No it's not that as mine doesn't have any leaves. At first it almost looks like a mushroom appearing form the soil as is it just a furry spike, then it grows up about a foot tall and the pink flowers open up from the lower part. The stem is almost succulent and very hairy.

I don't know if it's a bulb or not as we cleared out most of that flower bed when we moved in and it just appeared from nowhere.

[KatrinaD]

Looks like broomrape/orobanche.

From Google: Orobanche is a genus of wholly parasitic plants, attached to the roots of their hosts. They lack chlorophyll and hence any green colouration, and their leaves are vestigial. Above-ground stems are produced only for the purpose of flowering and setting seed; in perennial species the plant may persist below ground, unseen for a number of years.

[Trooperman]

It is, I believe, Orobanche Crenata or, in common names, a member of the Broomrape family and they are parasitic plants lacking in chlorophyll. It usually appears where you've had broad beans or pea (family) plants growing.

ps just seen post by KatrinaD who has beat me to it!

[Wicksey]

Well done you two ..... I would never have found it. I see it is an invasive weed, particularly in America where it is listed as a noxious weed and an "Invasive Species Most Unwanted". I should destroy it before it seeds everywhere then.

There hasn't been any beans in that flowerbed as far as I'm aware and our neighbours tend to grow tomatoes, although one did grow runner beans in his greenhouse last year.

[Flexo]

I think they've just found a medical use for them.

[telboy]

Yes like KatriaD says it's a parasitic plant, we've had one or two of them come up in our mange tout beds each year we've grown it. We just pull them up, no harm has been done to our crop of about 50 or so plants.

terry