Geocaulon is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Santalaceae

Santalaceae

Santalaceae is a widely distributed family of flowering plants which, like other members of Santalales, are partially parasitic on other plants...

 containing the single species Geocaulon lividum, which is known by the common names northern comandra and false toadflax. It is native to northern North America, where it is common and widespread from Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 to Newfoundland

Newfoundland

Newfoundland usually refers to either:* Newfoundland, the former name of Newfoundland and Labrador, a Canadian province in the eastern part of Canada* Newfoundland , an island that forms part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador...

 and into the northernmost contiguous United States.

This plant is a perennial herb which grows from rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

s located in the humus. It produces stems up to 30 centimetres (11.8 in) tall and inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s with two or three greenish or purplish flowers, one of which is generally perfect while the others are male

Stamen

The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

. The fruit is an orange drupe

Drupe

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...

 containing one seed. This plant grows as a hemiparasite

Parasitic plant

A parasitic plant is one that derives some or all of its sustenance from another plant. About 4,100 species in approximately 19 families of flowering plants are known. Parasitic plants have a modified root, the haustorium, that penetrates the host plant and connects to the xylem, phloem, or...

 on other species. It produces haustoria

Haustorium

In botany, a haustorium is the appendage or portion of a parasitic fungus or of the root of a parasitic plant that penetrates the host's tissue and draws nutrients from it. Haustoria do not penetrate the host's cell membranes.Fungi in all major divisions form haustoria...

 which tap the roots of host plants such as spruce, pine, birch, willow, alder, and twinflower.

This plant grows in many types of moist boreal

Boreal

Boreal may refer to*Boreal ecosystem**Boreal climate, the climate found in a region of boreal forests, and designated Dfc, Dwc or Dsc in the Köppen climate classification scheme.*boreal forest*Boreal forest of Canada*Boreal Bluet...

 habitat. It occurs in many types of coniferous and deciduous forests

Temperate deciduous forest

A temperate deciduous forest, more precisely termed temperate broadleaf forest or temperate broadleaved forest, is a biome found in North America, southern South America, Europe, and Asia. A temperate deciduous forest consists of trees that lose their leaves every year...

, bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

s, and other wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s. It is found in spruce forests on the taiga

Taiga

Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...

 of Alaska and it is an indicator

Indicator species

An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment. For example, a species may delineate an ecoregion or indicate an environmental condition such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change...

 of continental

Continental climate

Continental climate is a climate characterized by important annual variation in temperature due to the lack of significant bodies of water nearby...

 boreal

Subarctic climate

The subarctic climate is a climate characterized by long, usually very cold winters, and short, cool to mild summers. It is found on large landmasses, away from the moderating effects of an ocean, generally at latitudes from 50° to 70°N poleward of the humid continental climates...

 and cool temperate climate in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. It is found alongside plant species such as American green alder (Alnus viridis ssp. crispa), bog Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), bearberry

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, with names for this species including Kinnikinnick and Pinemat manzanita, one of several related species referred to as Bearberry...

 (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), crowberry

Empetrum nigrum

Empetrum nigrum is a species of crowberry known as black crowberry which is native to most northern areas of the northern hemisphere, as well as the Falkland Islands in the southern hemisphere....

 (Empetrum nigrum), twinflower (Linnaea borealis), prickly rose

Rosa acicularis

Rosa acicularis, also known as the prickly wild rose, the prickly rose, the bristly rose and the Arctic rose, is a species of wild rose with a Holarctic distribution in northern regions of Asia, Europe, and North America....

 (Rosa acicularis), mountain cranberry

Vaccinium vitis-idaea

Vaccinium vitis-idaea is a short evergreen shrub in the heath family that bears edible sour fruit, native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America. In the past it was seldom cultivated, but fruit was commonly collected in the wild. ...

 (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), bog blueberry

Vaccinium uliginosum

Vaccinium uliginosum is a flowering plant in the genus Vaccinium.-Distribution:Vaccinium uliginosum is native to cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, at low altitudes in the Arctic, and at high altitudes south to the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Caucasus in Europe, the mountains of...

 (Vaccinium uliginosum), highbush cranberry

Viburnum edule

Viburnum edule, the squashberry, mooseberry, pembina, pimbina, highbush cranberry, lowbush cranberry or moosomin in Cree language, is a small shrub species.-See also:* Trees of Canada* List of Canadian plants by family C...

 (Viburnum edule), bunchberry

Cornus canadensis

Cornus canadensis is a herbaceous member of the Cornaceae family...

 (Cornus canadensis), one-sided wintergreen (Pyrola secunda), bluejoint reedgrass

Calamagrostis canadensis

Calamagrostis canadensis is a species of grass, having three or more varieties, in the Poaceae family. It is known variously by the common names of Bluejoint, Bluejoint reedgrass, Marsh reedgrass, Canadian reedgrass, Meadow pinegrass, and Marsh pinegrass.-Varieties:Calamagrostis canadensis takes...

 (Calamagrostis canadensis), horsetails (Equisetum spp.), feathermosses

Hylocomium splendens

Hylocomium splendens, commonly known as Glittering Wood-moss, Stair-step Moss and Mountain Fern Moss, is a perennial clonal moss with a widespread distribution in Northern Hemisphere boreal forests. It is commonly found in Europe, Russia, Alaska and Canada, where it is often the most abundant moss...

 (Hylocomium splendens and Pleurozium schreberi), and lichen

Lichen

Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...

s (Cladonia spp. and Peltigera aphthosa).