Identified!

As a gardener, you are forever being asked what something is. Plant, insect, disease, etc. When I dont have an answer (and lets face it, I dont know everything), Im asked what kind of gardener am I ..... I usually respond that I only learnt about 300 plants and 100 different pathogens at tafe, but Im sure thats 400 more then you know on the topic. Usually shuts most of the smart alecs up. I digress, back on topic, this ugly looking specimen is one Im commonly asked to ID. I recently looked him up, so Im relatively green on the knowledge for him. Turns out its called Broomrape and its a parasite. Yeah, didnt see that one coming did you? Thats ok, nor did I. So that makes it very hard to control. It lives inside its host plant and is only visible when it flowers. So your best bet is just to keep pulling the flowers out when you see them. Roundup isnt overly effective on them and removing the host plant isnt always a practical option. This one, I think, is a Common Broomrape. Basically it looks unsightly, but isnt that detrimental. If you are in Western Australia and see one with bright blue flowers (as opposed to the purple) contact the CSIRO or Agg Department. That is Branched Broomrape and that is bad news!