Comandra
Comandra is a monotypic genus containing the single species Comandra umbellata. Its common names include bastard toadflax, umbellate bastard toadflax, and common comandra. The plant has a disjunct distribution; its four subspecies occur in North America and the Mediterranean.
Description
Comandra is a perennial herb growing from rhizomes, often in drier or semi-sandy soils, to about tall. The leaves are up to 3.3 cm long and are alternately arranged. Growing in flat or roundish clusters, the flowers lack petals, but have five greenish-white sepals. The flowers contain both male and female structures, and are insect-pollinated. The fruit is a drupe 4–6 mm thick.Subspecies include:
- Comandra umbellata subsp. californica - California bastard toadflax
- Comandra umbellata subsp. pallida - pale bastard toadflax, pine bastard toadflax
- Comandra umbellata subsp. umbellata
In Europe the common English name bastard toadflax is used for plants of the genus Thesium.
Pathogens
Comandra umbellata is the alternate host for the comandra blister rust, a rust fungus that affects pine species in North America. Comandra blister rust can cause tree losses of up to 7% in some regions where it is common.When C. umbellata is infected by the rust aeciospores from the pine host, yellow, blister-like spots bearing urediniospores appear on the leaves of the plant within 20 days. In the following weeks, teliospores develop on brown, hairlike telia that germinate to produce basidiospores, the fungal life stage capable of infecting pines.