Comandra umbellata subsp. umbellata

Perennial herb 10 - 40 cm tall Stem: branched or unbranched. Leaves: alternate or scattered, nearly stalkless or short-stalked, pale beneath, 2 - 5 cm long, oblong. Flowers: in compact, terminal clusters, greenish white to whitish, 4 mm wide, radially symmetrical, funnel-shaped. Tepals five, often connected to the anthers by tufts of hair. Petals absent. Stamens five. Fruit: a small, dry, seed-like nut.

Similar species: Comandra umbellata ssp. umbellata, the typical form of the species, is the only one found in the Chicago Region. Two subspecies, californica and pallida, occur west of the region.

Flowering: late April to early July

Habitat and ecology: Found in sandy Black Oak savannas, high dunes, prairies (most characteristically), and prairie fens. Colonial by rhizomes.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Notes: Although this plant manufactures much of its own food from photosynthesis, it acts as a parasite by obtaining some of its nutrients from the roots of trees and shrubs.

Etymology: Comandra derives from the Greek words kome ("hair") and andros ("a male"), and refers to the hairy attachment of the tepals to the anthers. Umbellata means "furnished with umbels."

Author: The Morton Arboretum

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

Infrequent in dry, sandy soil under black and white oak in northern Indiana and rare in a similar habitat in the southern counties. I have specimens from three counties which were found in black, sandy soil in prairies and a specimen from Lagrange County found in a drained tamarack bog where it was associated with tamarack and poison sumac. Most of them were seen by M. L. Fernald and he says that all of my specimens and all of those in the Gray Herbarium from west of the Allegheny Mountains belong to this species. It is doubtfully separated from Comandra umbellata and in Britton and Brown, Illus. Flora, ed. 2, it was regarded as a synonym. Fernald gives the range of Comandra umbellata as restricted to the area east of the Allegheny Mountains. Whether this species is maintained as distinct or is regarded merely as a geographical form, our specimens belong to the segregate of plants with the lower surface of the leaves not paler beneath and with a superficial rootstock.