About Harveya purpurea (L.fil.) Harv. ex Hook.
Harveya purpurea (L.fil.) Harv. ex Hook. is an annual herb with large, showy flowers and scale-like leaves. It is a root parasite of shrubs and trees, and is endemic to the Eastern and Western Cape provinces of South Africa. Its distribution ranges from the Cederberg to the Cape Peninsula, and extends along the coastal belt to Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. It grows mainly among fynbos, on stony slopes and sandy flats. The entire Harveya genus is native to Africa, Madagascar, and Yemen. This species is holoparasitic, meaning it is entirely non-photosynthetic, and it prefers to parasitize members of the Campanulaceae family, such as Roella and Wahlenbergia. The disabling of photosynthesis genes has occurred independently multiple times within the order Scrophulariales.
