Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Bastard Toadflax is a native, short erect perennial plant growing to 12 inches high on simple, light green, smooth stems, sometimes with a few branches.

The leaves are lance-like to oval, 1 to 2 inches long with pointed tips and up to 3/4 inch wide, alternate on the stem below the flower clusters, with smooth edges and surfaces, and a reticulated vein network. They may have short stalks or be stalkless.

The inflorescence is a terminal cluster of 12 or more flowers, the cluster somewhat flattened, caused by the individual flower stems having a different length, (a corymb). The flowers are small, 5-parted, with a five lobed bell shaped calyx without petals, about 1/4 inch wide, the top resembling a star, hence the alternate common name. The lower part of the calyx remains green while the lobes (the sepals) are white when the flower is open, but greenish-white prior to opening. They last two days each and do not close at night. Some flowers have only 4 calyx lobes. The five stamens are hairy with yellow anthers, are placed directly in front of the sepals and surround the pistil.

Seed: Fruit is a dry oily berry turning brown at maturity with the remains of the sepals persisting and containing a single seed.

Undesirable characteristics: The plant is parasitic on a wide range of plants and an alternate host to a fungus.

Habitat: Bastard Toadflax grows from a horizontal rhizome and sends out underground suckers to parasitize the root systems of nearby plants. It also produces food from photosynthesis, thus the plant is considered to be hemiparasitic. It can form large colonies from the root system, which is the plants' main means of reproduction. It grows in average soils, mesic to dry conditions, full to partial sun. Bastard Toadflax is the alternate host for the rust fungus Cronartium comandrae, known as the Comandra Pine Blister Rust, which affects pine species in North America.

Names: The genus Comandra is from two Greek words that mean 'male hair', a reference to the hair on the stamens. The species umbellata, is used when plants have an umbrella-like flower cluster. As to the common name, the plant is not a Toadflax but someone thought the leaves were like a Toadflax but the Toadflax are in the plant family Scrophulariaceae. 'Bastard' is not entirely correct either other than to perhaps mean 'false' Toadflax.

The author names for the plant classification are - first - 'L.' refers to Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy. His work was amended by ‘Nutt.’ who is Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) English botanist who lived and worked in America from 1808 to 1841. On his many expeditions he collected many species including some that had been originally collected by Lewis and Clark but lost by them on their return journey. He was indefatigable as a collector but incompetent in many practical matters. Washington Irving wrote of him in Astoria “Mr. Nuttall was a zealous botanist - forgetful of everything but his immediate pursuit.” He revised and added to French botanist Francois Andre Michaux’s 3 volume North American Sylva. Nuttall named this genus in 1818.