Triphysaria is a genus of five plants in the family Orobanchaceae, commonly known as owl's-clovers. This genus is closely related to the genera Castilleja and Orthocarpus. Triphysaria species are native to western North America, including one species that is endemic to California.
Description These plants, like those in many other genera of the family, are facultative hemiparasites on other plants. They produce haustoria that tap into the roots of other plants to extract some of the nutrients they need.
The plants bear spike inflorescences of pouched, folded flowers that have lips shaped like the beak of an owl.
While the plants contain their own chlorophyll and are able to undergo photosynthesis, this process is limited. Without host plants, the species cannot flourish as greatly.
Species Triphysaria eriantha – johnny-tuck, butter-and-eggs Triphysaria floribunda – San Francisco owl's-clover [California endemic] Triphysaria micrantha – purplebeak owl's-clover Triphysaria pusilla – dwarf owl's-clover Triphysaria versicolor – yellowbeak owl's-clover
References
Further reading Yoder, J. I. and D. S. Jamison. (2001). Heritable variation in quinone-induced haustorium development in the parasitic plant Triphysaria. Plant Physiology 125 1870 Torres M. J., Tomilov A. A., Tomilova N., Reagan R. L., Yoder J. I. 2005. Pscroph, a parasitic plant EST database enriched for parasite associated transcripts BMC Plant Biology 5:24 (16 November 2005)
External links Jepson Manual Treatment: Triphysaria zipcodezoo: Triphysaria