Cistanche tubulosa

Cistanche tubulosa

''Cistanche tubulosa'' is a holoparasitic desert plant species in the genus ''Cistanche''. The plant lacks chlorophyll and obtains nutrients and water from the host plants whose roots it parasitizes.
Cistanche tubulosa a really beautiful parasite: most desert flowers are small, because it takes a lot of energy to create flowers. but this one is a parasite, and it uses other plants' energy - so it can produce really beautiful flowers.  Cistanche tubulosa,Dead Sea,Israel,desert

Uses

The plant is grown in the Taklamakan desert, and is traditionally used for medicines and foods in China.

A recent study found a combination of Cistanche Tubulosa and Laminaria Japonica Extracts to be "promising substances for promoting health of the scalp and hair treatment"

The main sources of the Chinese herbal medicine cistanche are ''Cistanche salsa'' and ''Cistanche deserticola'', although it may also be obtained from ''C. tubulosa''. The drug, known in Chinese as ''suosuo dayun'', is collected in spring before sprouting, by slicing the stems of the plant.

Recent Chinese studies demonstrated that ''C. tubulosa'' contains several phenylethanoid glycosides, e.g. echinacoside, acteoside, and isoacteoside, which potentially can be used as regulators of blood glucose level for treatment of Type I and Type II diabetes mellitus.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionAngiosperms
ClassEudicots
OrderLamiales
FamilyOrobanchaceae
GenusCistanche
SpeciesC. tubulosa
Photographed in
Israel