In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale.
Commelina is a genus of approximately 170 species commonly called dayflowers due to the short lives of their flowers. They are less often known as widow's tears. It is by far the largest genus of its family, Commelinaceae. The Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus of the 18th century named the genus after the two Dutch botanists Jan Commelijn and his nephew Caspar, each representing one of the showy petals of Commelina communis.
Commelinaceae is a family of flowering plants. In less formal contexts, the group is referred to as the dayflower family or spiderwort family. It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with about 731 known species in 41 genera. Well known genera include Commelina (dayflowers) and Tradescantia (spiderworts). The family is diverse in both the Old World tropics and the New World tropics, with some genera present in both. The variation in morphology, especially that of the flower and inflorescence, is considered to be exceptionally high amongst the angiosperms.
Commelina tuberosa is an herbaceous perennial plant in the dayflower family which is native to Mexico but grown worldwide as an ornamental plant. It is characterized by its purple-splotched spathes with free margins, its bright blue petals of equal size, its tuberous roots, and its four to ten flowered lower cymes. In the wild, it is encountered in moist fields, open forests, or pine-oak forests. The species is sometimes considered to include the species Commelina coelestis, Commelina dianthifolia, and Commelina elliptica, such as in the Flora Mesoamericana. When these are treated as separate, they are often referred to as the "Commelina tuberosa complex". Horticulturally, the species are often treated as separate entities because of their differing habits and leaf shapes. In this sense, Commelina tuberosa is a low-growing plant with long narrow leaves.
Commelina communis, commonly known as the Asiatic dayflower, is an herbaceous annual plant in the dayflower family. It gets its name because the blooms last for only one day. It is native throughout much of East Asia and northern parts of Southeast Asia. In China, the plant is known as yazhicao, roughly translating to "duckfoot herb", while in Japan it is known as tsuyukusa, meaning "dew herb". It has also been introduced to parts of central and southeastern Europe and much of eastern North America, where it has spread to become a noxious weed. It is common in disturbed sites and in moist soil. The flowers emerge from summer through fall and are distinctive with two relatively large blue petals and one very small white petal.
Commelina caroliniana, sometimes known as the Carolina dayflower, is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family native to India and Bangladesh. Both the scientific name and the common name are misleading as the plant was described based on specimens found in the southeastern United States before it was known that the plant had in fact been introduced from India. It was most likely introduced to South Carolina in the late 17th century along with rice seed from India. The plant has also been recently reported from South Korea. Its flowers emerge from summer to fall and rarely into the winter.
Commelina benghalensis, commonly known as the Benghal dayflower, tropical spiderwort, or wandering Jew, kanshira in Bengali, is a perennial herb native to tropical Asia and Africa. It has been widely introduced to areas outside its native range, including to the neotropics, Hawaii, the West Indies and to both coasts of North America. It has a long flowering period, from spring to fall in subtropical areas, and throughout the year closer to the equator. It is often associated with disturbed soils.
Bromus madritensis is a species of brome grass known by the common name compact brome. The specific epithet madritensis refers to Madrid, Spain. It has a diploid number of 28.
Commelina cyanea, commonly known as scurvy weed, is a perennial prostrate herb of the family Commelinaceae native to moist forests and woodlands of eastern Australia, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island. The blue flowers appear over the warmer months and are pollinated by bees and flies.
Commelina lukei is a monocotyledonous, herbaceous plant in the dayflower family from East Africa. This blue-flowered herb has been recorded in lowland areas of Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar, where it is found in a variety of habitats ranging from forests to grasslands to roadsides. Described in 2008, the species was previously confused with Commelina mascarenica and Commelina imberbis. Despite this misinterpretation, a third similar species, Commelina kotschyi, is actually most closely related to C. lukei. The plant's distinctive features include a scrambling habit, capsules with a rounded extension at the apex, appendaged seeds, clasping leaf bases throughout, and solely needle-like hairs along the upper side of the leaf's midrib. The species was named in honour of the botanist W. Q. R. Luke, whose collection of the plant served as the type specimen and allowed for a complete illustration and description.
Commelina sphaerorrhizoma is a monocotyledonous, herbaceous plant in the dayflower family from south-central Africa. This blue-flowered herb has been recorded from western Zambia, central Angola, and the southern portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although at the time of its description it was known only from 11 collections and may be more broadly distributed. It is found in a variety of habitats ranging from woodlands to grasslands to roadsides. The plant's most distinctive feature and the source of its scientific name is its moniliform rhizome composed of spherical segments that can form a bead-like chain. Other distinguishing characteristics include glaucous leaves with clasping bases, unfused and virtually hairless spathes, capsules composed of three, one-seeded locules, and very large seeds with a hairy surface.
Commelina orchidophylla is a monocotyledonous, herbaceous plant in the dayflower family from south-central Africa. This blue-flowered herb has been recorded only from the Haut-Katanga District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, although at the time of its description it was known only from 3 collections. It is found in woodlands, especially in rocky areas, and on sandstone. The plant's most distinctive feature and the source of its scientific name is its orchid-like pair of broad basal leaves. Other distinctive characteristics include hairy tuberous roots, solitary spathes on long stalks that arise directly from the basal leaves before the development of elongated flowering shoots, dimorphic seeds, and unfused spathes lacking hairs which contain an upper cincinnus that barely emerges. The flowers have never been observed directly and are only partially known from bud dissections.
Commelina acutispatha is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family found primarily in East and Central Africa, including limited distribution in the African Great Lakes country of Uganda. In addition to that country, it is known from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a common species in regions of West Africa with significant forest cover, where it is often weedy. It is most common in disturbed, moist soils, in which it scrambles over other plants. The name Commelina thomasii was often used for West African plants until it was realized that Commelina acutispatha, an older name originally applied to plants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was the same species. The petals range in color from white to pale lilac to violet; the lower petal is about half as large as the upper paired petals. The central anther is reported to have a blue patch on the connective. It has solitary spathes borne on a peduncle covered in hook-hairs.
Commelina maculata is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family found in India, Burma, Bhutan, and southern China. It is most often encountered along forest margins, in grasslands, along roadsides, or in moist ditches. The species is characterized by its short-stalked spathes with fused margins that usually occur in clusters of two or three, bearing flowers that barely stick out from the mouth of the spathe. The species is very similar to Commelina paludosa, and further study is needed to recognize the boundary between the two. The two are typically differentiated on the basis of C. paludosa having larger and more numerous spathes that occur in clusters of four to ten, forming a sort of head. C. paludosa is also reported to have larger leaves, a more erect habit, less branching, and thicker stems. On the other hand, C. maculata is supposed to have heads of only two to three spathes, low-growing stems, numerous branches, slender stems that root at the nodes, and leaves less than ten cm long by two and a half cm wide.
Commelina hockii is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family found primarily in Central Africa, from southwestern Tanzania in the east, west through the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, and possibly extending further west to Angola. The species' distinctive features include its long, tapering spathes with unfused margins, its white flowers, and its many-flowered lower cymes. It can be found in grasslands and Brachystegia-dominated woodland. It is fairly unusual among Commelina species in having variation in the color of the antherodes, with some individuals having entirely yellow antherodes, while others contain a dark spot in the center. Also, it is one of the only Commelina species known to leave a papery residue of dried fluid inside its spathes; normally only fused-spathe species are known to produce this substance. Only one specimen from Angola resembles this species, but it has blue flowers, suggesting it may be a poorly understood and as-yet undescribed separate species. Commelina hockii is probably closely related to Commelina kituloensis, which shares a similar fruit type, the same tufted perennial habit, similar large spathes with dried fluid substance, and equally numerously flowered inflorescences. That species differs in having purplish flowers, hairy leaves, shorter spathes, and a preference for high altitude grassland.
Boerhavia erecta, commonly known as the erect spiderling or the erect boerhavia, is one of more than 100 species in the genus Boerhavia. It is native to the United States, Mexico, Central America, Angola and western South America, but now is cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical regions. In Africa its distribution extends from West Africa, eastwards to Somalia and down to South Africa. It has recently been found in parts of Madagascar and Réunion. In Asia, it occurs in India, Java, Malaysia, the Philippines, China and the Ryukyu Islands.
Commelina polhillii is a plant species native to Tanzania, known only from the Iriniga and Mpanda Districts. It occurs in open woodlands and in disturbed sites.
Hypericum cuisinii is a perennial herb in the genus Hypericum, in the section Adenosepalum. The herb has pale yellow flowers and occurs in Greece and Turkey.
Hypericum denticulatum, the coppery St. John's Wort, is a perennial herb in the flowering plant family Hypericaceae. It is native to the Eastern United States. The species has two varieties, H. denticulatum var. recognitum and H. denticulatum var. acutifolium. The herb has a diploid number of 24 or 48.
Swainsona gracilis is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a prostrate or ascending perennial herb with imparipinnate leaves with up to 15 wedge-shaped or narrowly oblong leaflets, and racemes of up to 4 purple or blue flowers.
