Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
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.
Calotropis procera is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae that is native to North Africa, Pakistan, tropical Africa, Western Asia, South Asia, Israel, and Indochina. It typically grows to a height of 6 feet (1.8 m) to 8 feet (2.4 m) in sunny and partly shaded habitats, including overgrazed pastures, rangeland, roadsides, river flats and coastal dunes. Its green fruits contain a toxic milky sap that is extremely bitter and turns into a gluey coating which is resistant to soap.
Thespesia grandiflora is a tree in the family Malvaceae of the rosids clade. Its common name is maga and sometimes is referred to as Maga Colorada and Puerto Rican hibiscus. This tree is widely distributed throughout Puerto Rico where it is endemic. Although originally endemic to the humid mountains of limestone in the western and north-central portions of the Island, today it grows everywhere in Puerto Rico due to its extensive cultivation. It is also grown as an ornamental tree in Florida, Hawaii, Honduras and in various Caribbean islands. The maga is mostly used as an ornamental plant, but like the related Thespesia populnea its wood is also valued for its durable timber. The flower was declared the national symbol of Puerto Rico on August 7, 2019.
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island countries and 19 dependencies in three archipelagos: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago.
Cyperus haspan is a dwarf papyrus sedge in the Cyperaceae. It is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions in Africa, Madagascar, southern Asia, New Guinea, Australia, South America, West Indies, Central America, southern Mexico and the southeastern United States.
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.
The Caribbean bioregion is a biogeographic region that includes the islands of the Caribbean Sea and nearby Atlantic islands, which share a fauna, flora and mycobiota distinct from surrounding bioregions.
Commelina diffusa, sometimes known as the climbing dayflower or spreading dayflower, is a pantropical herbaceous plant in the dayflower family. It has been introduced to the southeastern United States where it is most common in wet disturbed soils. There are two recognised varieties, one being the type and the other being C. diffusa var. gigas, which is native to Asia and has been introduced to Florida. It flowers from spring to fall and is most common in disturbed situations, moist places and forests. In China the plant is used medicinally as a febrifuge and a diuretic. A blue dye is also extracted from the flower for paints. In the Hawaiian Islands, it is known as "honohono grass", although it is technically not a grass. "Honohono" refers to the alternating structure of the leaves. At least one publication lists it as an edible plant in New Guinea.
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.
Spermacoce or false buttonweed is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises about 275 species found throughout the tropics and subtropics. Its highest diversity is found in the Americas, followed by Africa, Australia and Asia.
Laportea aestuans, the West Indian woodnettle, is an annual herb of the Urticaceae or nettle family.
The Caribbean is a subregion of the Americas that includes the Caribbean Sea and its islands, some of which are surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some of which border both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean; the nearby coastal areas on the mainland are often also included in the region. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America.
Commelina virginica, commonly known as the Virginia dayflower, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the dayflower family. It is native to the mideastern and southeastern United States, where it is typical of wet soils. While most members of the genus have thin, fibrous roots, the Virginia dayflower is relatively unique for its genus in having a perennial rhizome. The plant was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1762 publication of the second edition of Species Plantarum. A phylogenetic study based on the nuclear ribosomal DNA region 5S NTS and the chloroplast region trnL-trnF, two commonly used gene regions for determining relationships, suggested that Commelina virginica is most closely related to two African species, namely Commelina capitata and Commelina congesta. However, the statistical support for this result was low. Morphologically speaking the supposedly related species do share some unique traits. C. virginica and C. capitata have red hairs at the top of their leaf sheaths, an unusual character in the genus, while C. virginica and C. congesta both have clustered inflorescences on very short stalks.
Commelina kotschyi is a monocotyledonous, herbaceous plant in the dayflower family from Africa and India. This annual, blue-flowered plant is found primarily in seasonally waterlogged soils at relatively high elevations. The species has been largely confused in floras, often being misinterpreted as Commelina imberbis. C. kotschyi is most closely related to Commelina lukei, with which it does not overlap in distribution. C. kotschyi is characterised by its appendaged seeds, capsules with a bulging apex, and undulate leaves, among other features.
Schizachyrium is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek words σχίζειν, meaning "to split," and ἄχυρον, meaning "chaff." It refers to either the glume or the toothed lemmas.
The 1970 Caribbean–Azores hurricane was an unnamed Atlantic hurricane that became the wettest known tropical cyclone to affect the United States territory of Puerto Rico on record. The long-lived system formed on September 24 just off the west coast of Africa, and for several days maintained a general westward track. It passed through the Lesser Antilles on October 1, and later stalled in the eastern Caribbean Sea. On October 8, the depression crossed over the Dominican Republic, and subsequently it accelerated to the northeast. It was declassified as a tropical cyclone on October 12, although its remnants persisted for another week before dissipating in the westerlies near the Azores.
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.
