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.
Dasiphora is a genus of shrubs in the rose family Rosaceae, native to Asia, with one species D. fruticosa, ranging across the entire cool temperate Northern Hemisphere. In the past, the genus was normally included in Potentilla as Potentilla sect. Rhopalostylae, but genetic evidence has shown it to be distinct.
Rhexia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Melastomataceae. Rhexia species are commonly called "meadow beauty" and 11 to 13 species of Rhexia have been recognized depending on different taxonomic treatments.
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.
Sibbaldiopsis is a genus in the plant family Rosaceae. This genus only contains a single species: Sibbaldiopsis tridentata, formerly Potentilla tridentata. Commonly, its names include three-toothed cinquefoil, shrubby fivefingers, and wineleaf. Systemic phylogenetic work has placed S. tridentata within Sibbaldia as Sibbaldia retusa.
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 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 erecta, commonly known as the white mouth dayflower, slender dayflower, or widow's tears, is a perennial herb native throughout the Americas, Africa and western Asia. It is considered to be the most variable species of Commelina in North America.
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.
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 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.
Commelinoideae is a subfamily of monocotyledonous plants in the dayflower family (Commelinaceae). It is one of two subfamilies within the Commelinaceae and includes 39 genera and all but 12 of the family's several hundred known species. The subfamily is further broken down into two tribes, the Tradescantieae, which includes 26 genera and about 300 species, and the Commelineae, which contains 13 genera and about 350 species.
Geogenanthus poeppigii, commonly called the seersucker plant, is a flowering plant species in the family Commelinaceae. As currently circumscribed, the genus Geogenanthus includes two other species, G. ciliatus and G. rhizanthus. This species is named after 19th century German naturalist Eduard Friedrich Poeppig. Geogenanthus undatus is an outdated synonym for G. poeppigii.
Cartonema is a genus of perennial or annual monocotyledonous flowering plants in the dayflower family. It is restricted to Australia and nearby Trangan Island, which is part of Indonesia. It is the earliest diverging member of its family and has a number of traits that are unique within it, such as non-succulent leaves and a lack of raphides. Its distinctive features led to the genus to once be considered part of its own separate family, Cartonemataceae. However, analysis of DNA sequences, as well as many common anatomical characters, has supported its relationship with the Commelinaceae. It contains about 11 species.
Commelina fluviatilis is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family found primarily in Central Africa. It is known from Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, and the Caprivi Strip region of Namibia.
Commelina welwitschii is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family found in Southern Africa from Zimbabwe to Angola. 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, revealed that Commelina welwitschii forms a clade with Commelina purpurea and Commelina fluviatilis. Both of these relatives are African, share an unusual leaf anatomy, and have linear leaves that are often folded. Although it has yellow flowers, this study did not find a close relationship with Commelina capitata or Commelina africana, the two other African yellow-flowered species. Robert Faden, an expert on the Commelinaceae, points out that Commelina welwitschii is one of only three species in the genus to have bead-like rhizomes along with Commelina crassicaulis and Commelina sphaerorrhizoma. While it is clear that the former species is most likely a close relative given its many other similarities, the latter species is unlikely closely related given major differences in other characters.
Tradescantia longipes, commonly known as the wild crocus, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the dayflower family. It is found only in the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas in the Midwest United States. A spring blooming species, its flowers can be observed from April to May, typically in its preferred habitat of wooded slopes on rocky hillsides. While most other members of the genus in North America have stems reaching at least a few inches above the soil, the flowering shoots of Tradescantia longipes are borne essentially at ground level. This character is shared with some individuals of Tradescantia hirsuticaulis and Tradescantia virginiana, two closely related species, although both typically have obvious stems. Regardless, Tradescantia longipes can be distinguished from the former with its longer pedicels and bracts without fine hairs, and from the latter by the presence of at least some glandular hairs on the sepals. Furthermore, Tradescantia longipes is a tetraploid, meaning it has four sets of chromosomes, while Tradescantia hirsuticaulis is diploid with only two sets. Tradescantia virginiana occurs in both diploid and tetraploid forms, although it is consistently tetraploid where its range overlaps with Trandescantia longipes.
Myosotis capitata is a species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae, endemic to the Campbell and Auckland Islands of New Zealand. Joseph Dalton Hooker described the species in his 19th century work Flora Antarctica. Plants of this species of forget-me-not are perennial and erect, and have ebracteate inflorescences and blue corollas. It is one of two native species of Myosotis in the New Zealand subantarctic islands, the other being M. antarctica, which can also have blue corollas.
Tradescantia zanonia, formerly known as Campelia zanonia, is an evergreen perennial subshrub of the dayflower family, closely related to Tradescantia zebrina. It is native to the tropical Americas, ranging from Mexico through Central America and the Caribbean to Bolivia and southern Brazil. Its common names include cañagria, cascajo flor, cinta, rascadera, and suelda.
