This is a very small family in this country, for they prefer the
tropics, and in those regions some are trees. Ours are usually
parasitic on the roots of their neighbors. They have toothless,
mostly alternate leaves, mostly without leaf-stalks or stipules, and
small flowers, with a four- or five-lobed calyx and no corolla. The
four or five stamens are opposite the calyx lobes, at the edge of a
fleshy disk, and the ovary is one-celled and inferior, with one style,
developing into a one-seeded fruit.
There are four kinds of Comandra, one of them European; smooth,
perennial herbs, with alternate leaves, and flowers in clusters,
without bracts. The calyx is more or less bell-shaped, usually with
five lobes, its tube lined with a disk, the stamens inserted at base of
the lobes and the anthers attached to the lobes by tufts of hairs.
[Sidenote: =Pale Comandra=
_Comándra pállida_
=Flesh-color, greenish, purplish
Spring, summer
Northwest, Nev., Utah, Ariz.=]
This is a rather pretty plant, growing from a few inches to about a
foot tall, branching and rather woody below, with pale-green, smooth,
slightly thickish, rather stiff leaves, which are reduced to pinkish
scales on the lower stem. The flowers are small, usually flesh-color,
thickish in texture, with slender pedicels, and form terminal, rather
flat-topped clusters. The fruit, which is about the size of a small
pea, is crowned by the remains of the calyx, like a rose-hip. This is
common on dry plains and hillsides and is noticeable because of its
pale and somewhat peculiar coloring.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Pale Comandra--C. pallida.]
[Illustration]