This is the time of year when a really weird flower blooms in sandy wastes around Karachi, in sand dunes all along the coast and also in the deserts of Sindh and Balochistan too.Botanically called Cistanche tubulosa, ‘Broomrape’ in English and ‘Kasi’ in Urdu, it is still fairly common in the area outpost Seaview and Darakhshan in Karachi. Although as buildings come up on plots that remained vacant for years, is obviously adversely affected and it will, sadly, probably disappear from here as its natural environmental habitat is slowly, but surely, being wiped out by human encroachment.

The plant grows quite rapidly when temperatures are agreeable during late winter and very early spring. It sends up a very fat, juicy looking stem with big, slightly reddish-green bumps developing as it goes and then suddenly, when it is anywhere between one foot and two feet high, almost overnight it smothers itself in a mass of lemon yellow flowers until it glows like a candle in the tough environment which is its home.

A member of the global plant family called Oranbanchaceae — genus Holoparasitic — this strange plant is, as its genus indicates, a parasite. This means that lacking their own source of chlorophyll, this is found in green leaves which this plant does not have; it ‘locks in’ to other plants and steals its necessary nutrients and water directly from them.

This particular species is indigenous to Pakistan, West and Central Asia, India and North Africa, while its close relatives are found in the deserts and coastal regions of Middle and South America, America, China and Europe.

In flowers from early February, sometimes from mid-January if winter has been especially mild, right through until the end of April, it has a tendency to grow in clumps from the roots of the species of plant it has chosen to feed off and, when in glorious full bloom, it is quite an eye-catching sight indeed.

Largely ignored by desert animals, even goats avoid it so presumably it doesn’t taste nice! Despite increasing desertification as a direct result of climate change, it is a species which is under treat in many parts of the world and this is happening for two reasons — number one is that, so far at least, desertification which suits it perfectly, is slower in its spread than is destruction of natural habitats caused by humans either from expanding cities and towns or through the exploitation of mineral reserves by mining etc.

Secondly, as with many other species of wild plants, it has medicinal properties so is much in demand, and often over-harvested, by pharmaceutical companies.

The latter is not, as yet, happening here in Pakistan but uncontrolled population expansion is certainly taking its toll.