Bastard Toadflax

Comandra umbellata

Pollinator plant

No openly-licensed photograph of this species is in the catalogue yet. We show a photo only when we can credit the photographer.

Growing it

When	Flowers May to June; fruits July to August
Type	wildflower
Sun	Full sun, partial shade
Water	Low
Soil	pH 6.5–8.5
Hardiness	zone 2–7
Mature height	0.2 m
Mature spread	0.375 m
Spacing	0.25 m
Years to maturity	2
Bloom	May–Jun
Flower colour	White Pink read from a published flora
In bloom	May June
Fruit	Jul–Aug
Native to	AB, SK

lance-shaped leaves about 3 cm long

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

331 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 103 herbarium specimens and 897 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Fescue Grassland south AB: 562 records, high confidence
Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 536 records, high confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 432 records, high confidence
Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 298 records, high confidence
Northern Continental Divide south AB: 116 records, high confidence
Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 92 records, high confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 63 records, high confidence
Peace Lowland north AB: 58 records, high confidence
Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 51 records, high confidence
Eastern Continental Ranges central AB: 46 records, high confidence
Western Alberta Upland central AB: 28 records, high confidence
Slave River Lowland north AB: 5 records, low confidence
Wabasca Lowland north AB: 3 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

16 documented relationships.

nectar for

American Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
American Lady Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Arctic Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eastern Pine Elfin Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Erynnis brizo Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Erynnis persius Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Halictus confusus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Large Bee Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Meadow Fritillary Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Northern Azure Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Pearl Crescent Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Silvery Blue Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Small Sweat Bees unattributed, no specific work recorded
Sweat Bees unattributed, no specific work recorded

pollen for

A Digger Bee Robertson 1929
Agapostemon texanus Robertson 1929

Also worth knowing

Safety

Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Buying it

About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (herb default); SK/AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate