One-flowered Broomrape

I was so happy to see these two rare Broomrape flowers yesterday, peeping up through all the other surrounding plant species. None of the leaves you see belong to the Broomrape. A few of us spent the day out at Bow Valley Provincial Park, west of Calgary, on the very eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. This area is a well-known location for birds and especially wildflowers. Unfortunately, it rained for almost the whole time we were out there, while we walked all round Middle Lake, then walked to and around Many Springs and then back to the cars at Middle Lake. From there, we drove down to the River and, as the sun was now out, we did just a short walk along the river. Lol, I was totally exhausted by the time I got home - I'm used to slow-paced walks/hikes, stopping all the time to take photos. Yesterday was (for me) a fast-paced hike, which my body can't cope with, ha. Managed to get a few photos, including the last one I posted today, of a view across Middle Lake taken when we were almost back to the cars and the weather brightened, and this telemacro shot of the Broomrape. Just didn't feel like getting down on the ground in the rain to get a macro shot!

I'm pretty sure this is One-flowered Broomrape, not the Clustered Broomrape. This plant has a single whitish, yellowish or purplish flower, 15-25 mm long, on each stem. These are parasitic plants, attaching themselves to the roots of other plants because they lack chlorophyll and cannot produce their own food through photosynthesis. Also called One-flowered Cancer Root.

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