Hyobanche sanguinea sucking much from the host

These two well-developed, rosette-like Hyobanche sanguinea herbs are living well in the Little Karoo, raiding the root(s) of a self-sustaining plant of life-giving juices, unseen below the stony ground.

Leaves and flowers are all pink and hairy, the leaves scale-like and overlapping. Some of these plants are crimson red in the above-ground parts.

The flowers grow in dense, stem-tip, head-like spikes (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).