DISTRIBUTION, BIOLOGY AND CONTROL OF HEMP BROOMRAPE (OROBANCHE RAMOSA L.)

Abstract About 130 Orobanche spp. occured on cultivated crops. O. cumana , O. ramosa , O. minor and O. aegyptica are the most often. They are obligatory parasites that attack hundreds of varieties of dicotiledonous plants in warm and dry areas all over the world. All these species have got completely atrophied root, thus they live on the roots of other plants. They are particularly parasites on sunflower, maize, tobacco, tomato, peas, hop, hemp, and broad-bean crops. Orobanche ramosa is a parasitic species occuring most frequently on the roots of hemp and tobacco, but also on other crops such as: tomato, sunflower, potato, hop, carrot, maize, cabbage, common vetch, etc. Its origin is the Mediterranean region of southern Europe, but it is also spread all over the world. This parasite is propagated only by seed, which is most frequently spread by man activities, machines, wind, and water. It causes serious damages to crops. It occurs on some weeds as well. Monitoring of this parasite was made in the course of the last two years in the region of Herzegovina. In this region, this species has been known since the beginning of tobacco growing. But this species can be seen nowadays mostly on the tomato, in the greenhouses, and in the open fields as well. This parasite has been found causing serious damages on tomato in the villages of the municipality of Ljubuski, such as: Sipovaca, Veljaci, Vojnici, Klobuk, Grab, Kocusa, and also Vitina. The following measures are advised to control this parasite: phytosanitary measures cultural control, host-plant resistance, biological and chemical control.