Comandra umbellata - Bastard toadflax

Family: Santalaceae (Christmas Mistletoe) [E-flora]

Other Names: "bastard toadflax (bastard toad-flax (var. umbellata); California comandra (var. californica); pale comandra (var. pallida)" [E-flora]

SUBTAXA PRESENT IN BC

Origin Status: Native [E-flora]

"Comandra umbellata is a PERENNIAL growing to 0.3 m (1ft). It is in flower from Apr to June. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs)
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: acid soils and can grow in very acid soils.
It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers dry or moist soil." [PFAF]

"Comandra pallida is a PERENNIAL growing to 0.4 m (1ft 4in). It is in flower from May to June. The species is hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs).
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: acid soils and can grow in very acid soils.
It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers moist soil." [PFAF]

"General: Perennial parasitic herb from widespread rhizomes; stems erect, several, clustered, simple, 5-30 cm tall." [IFBC-E-flora]
"Leaves: Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves alternate, linear-elliptic to lanceolate or widely oblanceolate, entire, short-stalked to nearly unstalked, 5-40 mm long, 1-10 mm wide, thick, fleshy, greenish to glaucous." [IFBC-E-flora]
" Flowers: Inflorescence of terminal, compact clusters of somewhat bell-shaped; greenish to white or purple, apetalous flowers; calyces tube-shaped with 5 spreading lobes; stamens 1 mm long and hairy at the base." [IFBC-E-flora]
"Fruits: Berry-like, dry to fleshy, blue to purple or brown, 4-9 mm long." [IFBC-E-flora]
"Notes: Three varieties are recognized in BC. The vars. californica and umbellata may be difficult to separate." [IFBC-E-flora]

"It parasitizes the roots of other plants, but is more properly called a hemi-parasite because it has its own green leaves that photosyn- thesize and provide energy for growth. It is similar to mistletoe, robbing its hosts of little more than water" [EWPP]

Habitat / Range
C. umbellata; "Mesic to dry sandy or rocky slopes and shrublands in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; infrequent in NE, SC and SE BC, rare on S Vancouver Island; var. californica - S to AZ and CA; var. pallida - N to YT and NT, E to MB and S to MN, TX, NM AZ, and OR; var. umbellata - N to NT, E to NF and S to ME, PA, NC, GA, MS and OK." [IFBC-E-flora]

Hazards

Edible Uses

Other Uses

Medicinal Uses

Phytochemicals

C. pallida; Seed
Mass of 1,000, g: 140.0
Oil (petroleum ether), % on dry wt: 24.0
FAs
Composition (GLC, Apiezon L, in LAC-2-R 446),
%: 16:0 – 2.3; 16:1 – 0.4; 18:0 – 0.8; 18:1 – 40.8;
18:2 – 1.5; 18:3 – 5.8; 20:1 – tr [LLCEOPS]

Propagation

C. umbellata; "Seed - stratify for 3 months at 5oc and then sow in the greenhouse in a pot with a suitable host. Plant out when it is well established close to a mature host plant[200]." [PFAF]

Cultivation

C. umbellata; "We have very little information on this species and do not know if it will be hardy in Britain, though judging by its native range it should succeed outdoors in many parts of this country. The following notes are based on the general needs of the genus. Requires a well-drained moisture retentive lime-free soil[200]. A parasitic plant obtaining at least some of its nutrients from the roots of other plants[200, 235]. It is said to parasitize over 200 different species of plants in the wild[274]." [PFAF]

C. pallida; "Requires a well-drained moisture retentive lime-free soil[200]. A parasitic plant obtaining at least some of its nutrients from the roots of other plants[200, 235]. It is said to parasitize over 200 different species of plants in the wild[274]." [PFAF]

Synonyms

References

  1. Duke Phytochemical Database, James A. Duke, Accessed Feb , 2014, http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/plants.html
    • [reference]
  2. Comandra umbellata, https://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Comandra%20umbellata&redblue=Both&lifeform=7, Accessed Jan 18, 2015
  3. [NCAE] North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, googleplay. accessed Feb 8, 2014
  4. [PFAF.org] - Material obtained from Plants For A Future Database
  5. Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples, Harriet V. Kuhnlein & Nancy J. Turner, Gordon and Beach Publishers, Netherlands, 1991
  6. [UMD-Eth]
    • [1]Wyman, Leland C. and Stuart K. Harris 1951 The Ethnobotany of the Kayenta Navaho. Albuquerque. The University of New Mexico Press (p. 18)
    • [2]Teit, James A. 1928 The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus. SI-BAE Annual Report #45 (p. 239)
    • [3]Mahar, James Michael. 1953 Ethnobotany of the Oregon Paiutes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Reed College, B.A. Thesis (p. 66)
    • [4]Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey 1975 Cherokee Plants and Their Uses -- A 400 Year History. Sylva, N.C. Herald Publishing Co. (p. 24)
    • [5]Smith, Huron H. 1928 Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians. Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4:175-326 (p. 246)

Comandra Sp. - Bastard Toadflax

"Rhizome extensive. Stem: green, blue-green, or ± gray, striate. Leaf: ± sessile. Flower: subtended by bractlet; calyx tube bell- or urn-shaped, lobes 5(6); stamen base hair-tufted. Fruit: crowned by persistent calyx. 4 species: 3 America, 1 Europe. (Greek: hair, man, for hairy stamen bases)
Unabridged references: [Piehl 1965 Mem Torrey Bot Club 22(1):1–97]" [Jepson]

"A genus of 2 species (the only other species European). Comandra is placed in the segregate family Comandraceae by Nickrent et al. (2010)." [Weakley FSMAS]

"Comandra is a monotypic genus3 containing the single species Comandra umbellata. Its common names include bastard toadflax, umbellate bastard toadflax, and common comandra.[4] The plant has a disjunct distribution;3 its four subspecies occur in North America and the Mediterranean.5" [Wiki]

Local Species;

  1. Comandra umbellata - bastard toadflax [E-flora]

Notes:
Three varieties are recognized in BC. The vars. californica and umbellata may be difficult to separate.
1. Calyx lobes narrowly lanceolate, (2.5) 3-4 mm long; leaves thick and glaucous, the midnerve sometimes visible (the secondary nerves rarely visible); fruits 6-9 mm long; plants more frequent to the north................. var. pallida (A. DC.) M.E. Jones
1. Calyx lobes narrowly egg-shaped to egg-shaped, (1.5) 2-2.5 (3) mm long (if the lobes 2.5 mm or longer then the leaves usually not glaucous and without visible midnerves); fruits 4-6 mm long; plants of S BC.
2. Leaves somewhat fleshy, usually strongly glaucous, secondary veins usually not visible, the margins rarely rolled towards the underside of the leaves................... var. californica (Eastw. ex Rydb.) C.L. Hitchc.
2. Leaves thinner, usually only slightly if at all glaucous, the secondary veins usually plainly visible, the margins usually slightly rolled under towards the underside of the leaves................... var. umbellata [IFBC-E-flora]

Other Species

"Northern comandra (C. livida), a less common species than bastard toadflax, has oval leaves with rounded tips. Its small clusters of flowers look like miniature, greenish white stars. The 1/4-inch-diameter berries are orange. Northern comandra grows in northern Washington, northern Idaho, Canada, and Alaska. It prefers bogs and damp sites in open woods." [Derig WBOTW]

References

  1. [E-flora] Comandra umbellata, https://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Comandra%20umbellata , Accessed Jan 18, 2015; April 22, 2021
  2. [Jepson] Danica T. Harbaugh 2012, Comandra umbellata subsp. californica, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=49946, accessed on April 22, 2021.
  3. Wikipedia.org
    • [3] Der, J. P.; Nickrent, D. L. (2008). "A molecular phylogeny of Santalaceae (Santalales)" (PDF). Systematic Botany. 33 (1): 107–16. doi:10.1600/036364408783887438
    • [4] Comandra umbellata. https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.141204/Comandra_umbellata, NatureServe. 2012.
    • [5] Mabberley, D. J. (2000). The Plant Book: A Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants. New York: Cambridge University Press.