Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Bastard Toadflax
Comandra umbellata
Mistletoe/Toadflax family (Santalaceae)

Bastard Toadflax (Comandra umbellata) is , sometimes attaching itself to the roots of other plants and deriving at least some nourishment from them. The plant has green leaves and thus also photosynthesizes. It spreads by underground roots and can form large colonies in and along roadsides, or it can grow in small numbers, even inserting itself into rock crevices. The star-shaped flowers are white to pink, tiny, and massed. Leaves are short and somewhat thick, resembling those of a succulent. The plant is not a relative of Toadflax but someone thought the leaves resembled those of Toadflax, hence the common name. Comandra umbellata is a relative of the Australian Sandalwoods, and our species is one of only two worldwide in this .

The plant was first named Thesium umbellata by Linnaeus in 1753, but in 1818 Thomas Nuttall moved it to the new , "Comandra," which he created. "Comandra" is from the Greek for "male hairs" and refers to hairs on the . "Umbellata," "umbrella like," refers to the shape of the flower clusters -- though we now call this shape a "."


©2011 Matt Lavin, ©2022 Katherine Baird

Description

plants to 12" tall with horizontal rootstocks that have organs which fasten to parts of other plants. Leaves to 1 1/2" long, to or , pale and . Flowers about 1/8" long, 5-parted, in small or clusters. Flowers , , small, rose-tinged, pink, white, or green, no petals. a or .

Field Marks

Colonies of plants with light green upward pointing leaves topped by dense cluster of white to pink flowers.

© Al Schneider

meadow -- Large grass and wildflower filled area with few, if any, trees.

a hard, dry fruit containing only one seed that does not open at maturity.

perfect flower -- a bisexual flower, having both male and female parts.

glaucous -- Pale gray or bluish-green. It can mean covered with a greyish, bluish or whitish coating.

corymb -- a much-branched inflorescence with the lower flowers having long stems.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

terminal -- Located at the end (the tip or the apex).

hemiparasitic -- a plant that is parasitic under natural conditions and is also photosynthetic to some degree.

oblong -- Having an elongated form with somewhat parallel sides. Rectangular.

stamen -- the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower; The stamen consists of an anther supported by a filament.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

perianth -- the non-reproductive part of the flower such as petals and sepals.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

globose -- Shaped like a ping pong ball, only smaller.

drupe -- A fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a hardened shell containing a seed. A peach is a drupe. A raspberry is composed of drupelets.

Axillary bud growing from the armpit of the plant.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

In regular flowers all parts of the flower are similar in size and arrangement. Symeteric.

holdfast -- a root-like structure that anchors aquatic organisms, such as seaweed.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.