Botanical name

Harveya pauciflora

Family

Orobanchaceae

Common Name

Inkblom, Ink Flower

Synonym (old name)

Harveya tubulosa
Harveya pauciflora
Harveya pauciflora
Harveya pauciflora

Description

Parasitic (plant which obtains all of its food from another living plant) perennial up to 45cm. Leaves reduced to scales and lacking chlorophyll; flowers in long racemes, tubular with short petals, purple with white throat, upper petals projecting forward; stigma slender.

Plants in the genus Harveya turn black when handled or bruised and on drying. Used by early settlers to make ink.

After: William Henry Harvey (1811-1866), Irish born botanist and algologist (study of Algae), pioneer of South African systematic botany, keeper of the herbarium at Trinity College, Dublin.

Habitat

Rocky mountain slopes

Flower Date

November to March