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  8. ›Cistanche
desert hyacinth
Plate 1 of 4. (c) sami-youssef, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by sami-youssef · via iNaturalist

desert hyacinth

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.

Continue reading on Wikipedia

From the article Cistanche tubulosa on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section

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At the table

The plant is grown in the Taklamakan Desert, and is traditionally used for medicines and foods in China. The main sources of the Chinese herbal medicine cistanche (Chinese: 肉苁蓉, pinyin ròucōngróng) 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.

Wikipedia: “Uses”

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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In the stacks

Searching the stacks…

Every page naming Cistanche tubulosa in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 49562.