Mike Lyle wrote:
It's very variable: medium-tall perennial; colony-forming, often in
large numbers; owes its characteristic coloration to a lack of
chlorophyll; generally pilose, with dense brush-like clusters of
filaments at the top, though this feature is less marked or absent in
many older specimens; fortunately for areas in which it has become an
endemic pest, unable to reproduce vegetatively; frost and drought
tender, but with great powers of recovery; some of the specimens seen
here have exuded a marked foetid odour. Has given rise to bitter
wrangles between neighbours, sometimes ending in the courts. Easily
destroyed with traditional and modern herbicides. Tastes vary, but I
wouldn't have it in my own garden; completely unsuitable as a house
plant. Don't bother with it.

Totally fascinated now. I need a picture. Somebody?! Google brought
nothing. My books brought nothing. How very very strange. Currently
studying weeds too. I need this. I want it!