Chaffseed

Description

American chaffseed is an erect perennial herb with unbranched stems (or stems branched only at the base) with large, purplish-yellow, tubular flowers that are borne singly on short stalks in the axils of the uppermost, reduced leaves (bracts). The leaves are alternate, lance-shaped to elliptic, stalkless, 1 to 2 inches (2 to 5 centimeters) long, and entire. The plant is densely, but minutely hairy throughout, including the flowers. Flowering occurs from April to June in the South, and from June to mid-July in the North. Chaffseed fruits are long, narrow capsules enclosed in a sac-like structure that provides the basis for the common name. Fruits mature from early summer in the South to October in the North. American chaffseed is a hemiparasite (partially dependent upon another plant as host). Like most of the hemiparasitic Scrophulariaceae, it is not host-specific, so its rarity is not due to its preference for a specialized host.