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Commelina

Commelina
Family: Commelinaceae
Commelina image
Sue Carnahan
  • FNA
  • VPAP
  • Gleason & Cronquist
  • Resources
Robert B. Faden in Flora of North America (vol. 22)
Herbs, perennial or annual. Roots thin or tuberous. Leaves 2-ranked or spirally arranged, not glaucous; blade sessile or petiolate. Inflorescences terminal, leaf-opposed; cymes 1--2, enclosed in spathes, proximal cyme several-flowered, distal cyme vestigial or with 1--several staminate flowers; spathes often filled with mucilaginous liquid, margins distinct or basally connate; bracteoles usually absent. Flowers bisexual and staminate, bilaterally symmetric; pedicels well developed; sepals distinct or proximal 2 connate, unequal; petals distinct, proximal petal often different color than distal 2, smaller or subequal, distal 2 blue (occasionally lilac, lavender, yellow, peach, apricot, or white), clawed; stamens (5--)6, proximal 3 fertile, medial different in form, size from others, distal (2--)3 staminodial; filaments glabrous; antherodes commonly 4--6-lobed; ovary 2--3-locular, ovules 1--2 per locule, 1-seriate. Capsules 2--3-valved, 2--3-locular. Seeds 1--2 per locule; hilum linear; embryotega lateral. x = 11--15.
JANAS 33(1)
PLANT: Annual or perennial herbs, the roots thin or tuberous. STEMS prostrate to erect. LEAVES lanceolate to linear lanceolate. STEMS: prostrate to erect. LEAVES: lanceolate to linear lanceolate. INFLORESCENCE: terminal and leaf-opposed, composed of 1-2 cymes enclosed in spathes, the upper cyme lacking or producing 1 staminate flower, the lower cyme several flowered; spathes with margins free or fused basally, often filled with mucilaginous liquid. FLOWERS: perfect or staminate, zygomorphic; sepals free or lower 2 connate; petals free, the upper 2 usually blue (occasionally lilac or lavender), clawed, the lower petal often smaller and different in color from the upper 2; stamens 6, the upper 3 staminodial, the sterile anthers commonly 4-6 lobed, the lower 3 stamens fertile, the medial different in form and size from the others; ovules 1-2 per locule. FRUITS: 2-valved, 3-locular on ours. SEEDS: 1-5, testa rugose or smooth, tan to brown, hilum linear. NOTES: Ca. 170 species: almost cosmopolitan, mainly tropical (for Jan and Kaspar Commelijn). REFERENCES: Puente, Raul, and Robert B. Faden. 2001. Commelinaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 33(1).
Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Sep 3, herbaceous, somewhat unequal, 2 sometimes connate at base; pet 3, the upper 2 usually blue, ovate to reniform, clawed at base, the lower one smaller, in most spp. white; fertile stamens 3, 2 with oblong anthers, one incurved with a longer anther; sterile stamens (2)3, smaller, with imperfect, cruciform anthers; filaments not hairy; ovary sessile, 3-locular, the lower 2 locules fertile, with 1 or 2 ovules, the upper median locule smaller, 1-ovuled or empty, or abortive; fr a loculicidal, 2-3-valved capsule; herbs with succulent stem and linear to lance-ovate lvs; infl of small cymes, each closely subtended by a folded cordate spathe from which the pedicels protrude (or sometimes 2 cymes to a spathe); usually self-pollinated. 200+, cosmop., mostly warm reg.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Species within inventory project: Arizona Flora
Commelina dianthifolia
Media resource of Commelina dianthifolia
Map not
Available
Commelina erecta
Media resource of Commelina erecta
Map not
Available
Commelina tuberosa
Media resource of Commelina tuberosa
Map not
Available
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