[A rendering of med.L. Rapum genistæ broom knob or tuber; f. rapum ‘a knob or lump formed by the roots of trees,’ and genista broom. The name is therefore not of popular origin.] A large genus of parasitic herbs (Orobanche), which attach themselves to the roots of broom, furze, clover, and other leguminous plants, having a brownish-yellow leafless fleshy stem furnished with pointed scales or bracts. The name was first applied to O. major, the Rapum genistæ of Lobel and other early herbalists.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. vi. 664. That excrescence comming from the roote of Broome is called … in Latine Rapum Genistæ, that is to say, Broome Rape.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., III. xxii. 424. Broom-rape … easeth pains in the Reins.
1711. Phil. Trans., XXVII. 345. A large Broom-rape with a purple Flower.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., III. 120. Brown and leafless parasites, like the Broom-rapes.
1883. G. Allen, in Knowledge, 3 Aug., 65/1. The fat, tuberous stems of the greater broomrape.
attrib. 1863. Marg. Plues, Wild Flowers (1864), 210. The Broom-rape order … contains but two families, that of the Broom-rape and that of the Toothwort.
