Mediterranean lineseed
Bellardia trixago
Family · Orobanchaceae · Harmless
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The white and purple spike of mouth-shaped flowers that appears in fields and verges in spring, living partly off the roots of neighbouring plants with nothing visible from outside.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Montado · Dunes and sand
Also known asbellardia
How to tell it
A dense four-sided spike with two-lipped flowers: the upper lip dark purple and helmet-shaped, the lower white or yellowish. Opposite, narrow, toothed leaves, and the whole plant sticky. An upright, barely branched stem.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use. The interest is in what it does underground: it is a hemiparasite, attaching to the roots of neighbouring grasses and stealing their water and minerals, while still photosynthesising normally.