Striga bilabiata (Thunb.) Kuntze

bilabiata: 2-lipped.

Erect, annual herb, 10-55 cm tall. It is a root parasite of grasses. Stems usually unbranched, pubescent with whitish hairs. Leaves opposite, erect along the stem, linear-lanceolate, 5-20 mm long, with rough, thick-based hairs. Flowers in dense terminal spikes, several flowers open at the same time. Bracts lanceolate, imbricate, ciliate hairy on margins and midrib. Calyx tube 2-3 mm long; lobes distinctly 5-veined. Corolla more or less distinctly 2-lipped, pink, violet or whitish; tube up to 11 mm long, angled just below the lobes; lower lobes c. 4 mm long, all narrow. Capsule c. 3 × 1.5 mm.

Occasional

Angola, Botswana, Namibia, DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Mpumalanga, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Other varieties occur in East and West Africa.