Purple toothwort

Sunshine and showers at the Yorkshire Arboretum today. We seemed to spend a fair amount of time sheltering under the trees.

Purple toothwort is a parasitic plant that has neither leaves nor chlorophyll and draws its food from the roots of its host plant. There are a few clumps flowering at the Arb at the moment, with the host plant being willow, which is unharmed by this parasitism. It likes damp woodlands of valley bottoms, so the Arb is a perfect spot!