Cistanche

Cistanche is a Eurasian and African genus of holoparasitic desert plants in the family Orobanchaceae. They lack chlorophyll and obtain nutrients and water from the host plants whose roots they parasitize. They are often known as desert hyacinths.

==Taxonomy== There are between 20 and 30 species of Cistanche. The most comprehensive description of the genus was published in 1930. The taxonomy is difficult because important features of the flowers are often poorly preserved after drying. The plants are found from the Mediterranean region, North Africa, Middle East through to China. The species of Cistanche are parasitic plants that connect to the conductive system of a host, extracting water and nutrients from the roots of the host plant. ===Species=== Species as according to Plants of the World Online : {| class="wikitable" |- ! Image !! Scientific name !! Distribution |- | ||Cistanche aethiopica ||NW. Ethiopia |- | ||Cistanche afghanica || SE. Afghanistan |- | ||Cistanche armena ||Transcaucasus |- | ||Cistanche christisonioides ||Pakistan |- | ||Cistanche compacta ||NE. Libya |- |120px||Cistanche deserticola ||China (Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang), Mongolia |- | ||Cistanche feddeana ||Mongolia, China (Sichuan) |- | ||Cistanche fissa ||Israel to Central Asia |- | ||Cistanche flava ||Iran, Kazakhstan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan |- | ||Cistanche lanzhouensis ||E. & S. Mongolia to N. China. |- | ||Cistanche laxiflora ||Afghanistan, Iran |- |120px||Cistanche lutea ||Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Spain |- | ||Cistanche mauritanica ||Algeria, Morocco |- | ||Cistanche mongolica ||Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, China (Xinjiang) |- |120px||Cistanche phelypaea ||Algeria, Benin, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Chad, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Kriti, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Portugal, Selvagens, Senegal, Spain, Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara |- | ||Cistanche ridgewayana ||Afghanistan, Iran, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan |- | ||Cistanche rosea ||Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen |- |120px||Cistanche salsa ||Afghanistan, China (Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia), Russia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Mongolia, Qinghai, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan |- | ||Cistanche sinensis ||China (Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang) |- | ||Cistanche speciosa ||Uzbekistan |- | ||Cistanche stenostachya ||Uzbekistan |- | ||Cistanche trivalvis ||Turkmenistan |- |120px||Cistanche tubulosa ||Afghanistan, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gulf States, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Mozambique, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, Yemen |- |120px||Cistanche violacea ||Algeria, Chad, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Tunisia, Western Sahara |- |}