Talk:Orobanche hederae

Plant? Botany student? Combatting an invasive species?
The Distribution section reads:

> »In the US, the only place it has been observed is in a patch of ivy at the University of California, Berkeley. It is speculated that a botany student purposely planted it there since ivy is very invasive in California.«

First of all, you do not plant broomrape, you sow it on a the roots of a suitable host plant, here the common ivy.

Secondly, the source does not mention a botany student, nor the reason for sowing it, so saying that a botany student planted the broomrape to combat an invasive species is pure speculation. The source merely says:

> »How it came to be in that specific location is a bit of a mystery but the proximity to the life sciences building suggests that this introduction might have been intentional.«

It may very well have been a botany student, but even the source does not speculate that it was. (If I were a botany student, I would have sowed the broomrape out of sheer interest, certainly not to combat the ivy (which would have been inefficient anyway, as the ivy is virtually unharmed by the parasite, something a botany student would know).)

Blanu (talk) 08:40, 8 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Good points. I removed the unsupported speculation while trying to keep the relevant details. AdamChrisR (talk) 14:09, 10 September 2023 (UTC)