Code
STRHE
Growth form
Parasite
Biological cycle
Annual
Habitat
Terrestrial
Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth.
synonym | Buchnera hermonthica Del. |
synonym | Striga campuleia Steud. |
synonym | Striga senegalensis Benth. |
No Data |
Global description
Striga hermonthica is an erect, branched candlestick plant with opposite, linear to lanceolate, dark green leaves. The pink flowers are grouped into spike-like cymes. The tube of the corolla is bent at the top of the calyx. The calyx has 5 prominent veins. The bract is 2 to 3 mm wide. It is a parasitic species of cereals such as sorghum, millet, maize, rainfed rice, sugar cane, finger millet and wild grasses.
Seedling
The underground stem develops from a bulge (haustorium) attached to a root of the host plant. It is cylindrical, white and has opposite leaves reduced to scales 3 mm long. At emergence, the stem and leaves become scabrous and dark green in color. The leaves gradually lengthen at each node.
General habit
The plant is erect. The axis is generally branched, arranged in candlestick, up to 50 cm high. The plant is attached to a root of its host.
Underground system
The fine roots develop along the underground part of the stem.
Stem
The stem is solid, with a quadrangular section, with rounded corners. The faces are hollowed out of a median groove. The stem is sparsely curved, multicellular and curved upwards.
Leaf
The leaves are opposite, sessile and dark green in color. They blacken as they dry. The limb is linear to lanceolate, at the top in acute corner. It measures up to 10 cm long and 1 cm wide. The margin of the limb and the upper and lower faces are scabrous.
Inflorescence
The inflorescence is a spike-like, axillary or terminal cyme up to 25 cm long, with 10 to 50 flowers.
Flower
The flowers, 3 cm long, are pale pink to dark pink. The corolla consists of a tube 11 to 17 mm long, bent at the top of the calyx, and opening in two lips. The weakly bilobed upper lip is twice as small as the deeply trilobed lower lip. The corolla tube and petal base have short hairs. The calyx, 11 mm long, is tubular. It has 5 teeth and 5 protruding veins with short hairs. The flowers are inserted in the axil of a bract 2 to 3 mm wide.
Fruit
The fruit is a capsule 5 to 7 mm long, opening in two valves.
Seed
The pear-shaped seeds, very small (330 x 170 μm), are black in color. They have a hard, reticulated integument. The ornamentations consist of longitudinal ridges arranged in spirals. These seeds are extremely numerous: 400 to 650 per capsule, or 10,000 to 50,000 per plant.
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Northern Cameroon: In rainfed crops sawn in May-June, germination of Striga hermonthica starts in early July. The underground development phase lasts 4 to 5 weeks. The first emergences begin at the beginning of August and can occur until mid-October. Flowering begins in September, 5-7 weeks after emergence and lasts until November. Fruiting and seed dispersal takes place in October and November. The complete cycle lasts 90 to 120 days. In the case of irrigated or off-season crops, the development cycle of S. hermonthica increases with decreasing temperature.
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Striga hermonthica is an annual species, parasite of Poaceae (wild sorghum, maize, millet, rainfed rice, sugar cane and wild Poaceae). It multiplies by seeds. A plant can produce 10,000 to 50,000 seeds. It is an allogamous species, whose fertilization is ensured by insects, especially butterflies. The viability of seeds in the soil can reach 10 to 15 years. Dissemination is mainly by wind and runoff. When they are dispersed, the seeds are dormant. Germination is triggered by substances (strigol) contained in the root exudates of the host plants, then the radicle attaches to the host root by the haustorium. S. hermonthica then develops into a parasite by feeding on the raw sap of the host. Once emerged, it develops roots and becomes hemiparasitic.
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Striga hermonthica can be confused with Striga aspera (Willdenow) Bentham, whose vegetative structure is similar, although smaller. The tube of the corolla of S. aspera is bent 4 to 5 mm above the top of the calyx and has glandular hairs; the bract is 1-2 mm wide. S. aspera parasitizes mainly rainfed rice and wild Poaceae, occasionally sorghum, maize and sugar cane.
Distinctive characters of some species of Striga spp.
Habit | Height | Bract | Calyx | Flower color | Corolla tube | Species |
Candelstick with few leaves | 10-30 cm | 3-5 mm long, linear | 5 nervs | pale pink white cream |
bent upper than the calyx edge | Striga gesnerioides |
Candelstick with well developped leaves |
7-30 cm | 8 mm long, linear | 10 nervs | red yellow white |
bent upper than the calyx edge | Striga asiatica |
Candelstick with well developped leaves |
15-50 cm | longer than the calyx, lanceolate | 5 nervs | pink | bent at the calyx edge | Striga hermonthica |
Candelstick with well developped leaves |
15-45 cm | 3 mm long, linear | 10 nervs | pink white |
bent upper than the calyx edge | Striga aspera |
Candelstick with well developped leaves |
30-40 cm | 30 mm long | 10 nervs | yellowish white cream |
curve inflated | Striga passargei |
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Northern Cameroon: Sriga hermonthica occurs preferentially in poor soils with a degraded structure with a sandy surface horizon, a clay level (2-5%) and a very low organic matter (less than 0.7%), such as degraded ferruginous soils. Several factors favor infestations: a low rainfall (between 500 and 1000 mm), plots exploited for many years and sensitive crops (millet, sorghum, maize) returning very frequently in the rotation. It prefers strong sunstroke and is more abundant in plots with low density. Conversely, grain crops associated with a legume, such as groundnuts and more particularly creeping cowpeas that cover the soil, are less infested.
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Worldwide distribution
Striga hermonthica is an African species. It is widespread in the semi-arid zone of sub-Saharan tropical Africa between 5 and 20 degrees north latitude. It is present throughout Eastern Africa, from Ethiopia to Mozambique and also in Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula.
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Local harmfulness
Northern Cameroon: Uncommon in the wild or in long-term fallow, Striga hermonthica appears in plots cultivated for 3 or 4 years, to become very abundant after 7 or 8 years of cultivation, especially when cereals predominate in the rotation. It is a major regional weed for most sub-Sahelian countries (Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon ...). Two-thirds of the 73 million hectares devoted to cereal production in Africa are located in ecological zones where Striga is present. In North Cameroon, yield losses due to S. hermonthica attacks are estimated at between 30 and 100%. Half of the districts have all of their contaminated cereal plots.
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
For more information on Striga asiatica please consult AccessAgriculture, and videos on striga management,
published by ICRISAT
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
- Akobundu I.O. & Agyakwa C.W., 1989. Guide des adventices d'Afrique de l'Ouest. Institut international d'agriculture tropicale. Ibadan, Nigeria, 521p.
- Berhaut J., 1967. Flore du Sénégal. 2ème éd. Clairafrique éd., Dakar, Sénégal, 485p.
- FAO, 1991. Deuxième atelier de travail général du Réseau panafricain pour la lutte contre le Striga (PASCON). Rapport. , Nairobi, Kenya, 21p.
- Le Bourgeois Th., 1993. Les mauvaises herbes dans la rotation cotonnière au Nord-Cameroun (Afrique) - Amplitude d'habitat et degré d'infestation - Cycle de développement. Thèse USTL Montpellier II, Montpellier, France, 241p.
- Le Bourgeois, T. and H. Merlier (1995). Adventrop - Les adventices d'Afrique soudano-sahélienne. Montpellier, France, Cirad.
- Holm L. G., Plucknett D. L., Pancho J. V. & Herberger J. P., 1977. The World's Worst Weeds : Distribution and Biologie. East-West Center, University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, 609p.
- Ivens G. W., Moody K. & Egunjobi J. K., 1978. West African Weeds. Oxford University Press, Ibadan, Nigeria, 255p.
- FAO, 1993. Towards an integrated control of Striga in Africa. Proc. of the second General Workshop of the Panafrican Striga Control Network (PASCON).
- Ramaiah K. V., Parker C., Vasudeva Rao M. J. & Musselman L. J., 1983. Manuel d'identification et de lutte contre le Striga. Bull. d'Inf. n 15, ICRISAT, Patancheru, Inde, 51p.
- Dembélé B., 1988. Aspects biologiques et agronomiques de deux scrophulariacées parasites tropicales : Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. et Striga gesnerioides (Willd.) Vatke. Thèse de Docteur-Ingénieur, Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier, France, 100 p.
- Dembélé B., Raynal-Roques A., Sallé G. & Tuquet C., 1994. Plantes parasites des cultures et des essences forestières au sahel. Institut du sahel, Bamako, Mali, 43p.
- Ivens G. W., 1989. East African Weeds and Their Control. Oxford University Press, Nairobi, Kenya, 289p.
- Braun M., Burgstaller H., Hamdoun A. M. & Walter H., 1991. Common weeds of Central Sudan. GTZ, Verlag Josef Margraf ed. Scientific Book, Weikersheim, Germany, 329p.
- Hutchinson J., Dalziel J. M., Keay R. W. J. & Hepper F. N., 1963. Flora of West Tropical Africa. Vol. II. 2ème éd. The Whitefriars Press ed., London & Tonbridge, 544p.
- Merlier H. & Montégut J., 1982. Adventices tropicales. ORSTOM-GERDAT-ENSH éd., Montpellier, France, 490p.
- Akoégninou, A., W. J. van der Burg and L. G. van der Maesen (2006). Flore analytique du Bénin. Cotonou, Bénin, Wageningen, Pays-Bas, Backhuis Publishers.
- Akobundu I.O. & Agyakwa C.W., 1989. Guide des adventices d'Afrique de l'Ouest. Institut international d'agriculture tropicale. Ibadan, Nigeria, 521p.
- Berhaut J., 1967. Flore du Sénégal. 2ème éd. Clairafrique éd., Dakar, Sénégal, 485p.
- FAO, 1991. Deuxième atelier de travail général du Réseau panafricain pour la lutte contre le Striga (PASCON). Rapport. , Nairobi, Kenya, 21p.
- Le Bourgeois Th., 1993. Les mauvaises herbes dans la rotation cotonnière au Nord-Cameroun (Afrique) - Amplitude d'habitat et degré d'infestation - Cycle de développement. Thèse USTL Montpellier II, Montpellier, France, 241p.
- Le Bourgeois, T. and H. Merlier (1995). Adventrop - Les adventices d'Afrique soudano-sahélienne. Montpellier, France, Cirad.
- Holm L. G., Plucknett D. L., Pancho J. V. & Herberger J. P., 1977. The World's Worst Weeds : Distribution and Biologie. East-West Center, University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, 609p.
- Ivens G. W., Moody K. & Egunjobi J. K., 1978. West African Weeds. Oxford University Press, Ibadan, Nigeria, 255p.
- FAO, 1993. Towards an integrated control of Striga in Africa. Proc. of the second General Workshop of the Panafrican Striga Control Network (PASCON).
- Ramaiah K. V., Parker C., Vasudeva Rao M. J. & Musselman L. J., 1983. Manuel d'identification et de lutte contre le Striga. Bull. d'Inf. n 15, ICRISAT, Patancheru, Inde, 51p.
- Dembélé B., 1988. Aspects biologiques et agronomiques de deux scrophulariacées parasites tropicales : Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. et Striga gesnerioides (Willd.) Vatke. Thèse de Docteur-Ingénieur, Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier, France, 100 p.
- Dembélé B., Raynal-Roques A., Sallé G. & Tuquet C., 1994. Plantes parasites des cultures et des essences forestières au sahel. Institut du sahel, Bamako, Mali, 43p.
- Ivens G. W., 1989. East African Weeds and Their Control. Oxford University Press, Nairobi, Kenya, 289p.
- Braun M., Burgstaller H., Hamdoun A. M. & Walter H., 1991. Common weeds of Central Sudan. GTZ, Verlag Josef Margraf ed. Scientific Book, Weikersheim, Germany, 329p.
- Hutchinson J., Dalziel J. M., Keay R. W. J. & Hepper F. N., 1963. Flora of West Tropical Africa. Vol. II. 2ème éd. The Whitefriars Press ed., London & Tonbridge, 544p.
- Merlier H. & Montégut J., 1982. Adventices tropicales. ORSTOM-GERDAT-ENSH éd., Montpellier, France, 490p.
- Akoégninou, A., W. J. van der Burg and L. G. van der Maesen (2006). Flore analytique du Bénin. Cotonou, Bénin, Wageningen, Pays-Bas, Backhuis Publishers.
Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Striga%2520hermonthica
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Root | Root |
Kingdom | Plantae |
Phylum | Tracheophyta |
Class | Magnoliopsida |
Order | Lamiales |
Family | Orobanchaceae |
Genus | Striga |
Species | Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth. |