Commelina forskaolii

Herbs, annual or perennial, mat-forming. Roots thin. Stems erect to ascending, to 30 cm. Leaves: leaf sheaths not auriculate, with colorless hairs at summit; blade oblong or lanceolate-oblong to oblong-elliptic, 1.5--6 ´ 0.4--1.1 cm, margins strongly undulate, completely glabrous or adaxially sparsely pilose. Inflorescences: distal cyme usually exserted, 1-flowered; spathes solitary, pedunculate, strongly inflated, not falcate, 0.7--1.5 ´ 0.5--0.9 cm, margins connate, often violet, apex acute, sparsely hirsute; peduncles 0.4--1.1 cm. Flowers sometimes cleistogamous and subterranean (not yet seen in our area); chasmogamous flowers bisexual and staminate; petals blue, proximal one very reduced, conspicuous (blue, rather than white or colorless); lateral stamens with filaments laterally compressed and ± winged; antherodes entirely yellow, cruciform. Capsules 3-locular, 2-valved. Seeds sometimes 5, brown, usually only 1 abaxial locule seed developing, enclosed in deciduous, muricate, abaxial capsule valve; seeds of adaxial locule, when present, 2.5 mm, smooth. 2n = 30.

Flowering summer--winter. Sanitary department landfill; introduced; Fla.; native, paleotropics.

This species is known from a single population in Dade County, Florida, discovered in 1980. The population was sprayed with herbicide by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1984 because of the potential of the species to be a weed. Its current status is unknown.

Other References Anderson, E. 1952. Plants, Man and Life. Boston. Bolick, M. 1981. Tradescantia bracteata Small and T. occidentalis (Britt.) Smyth in the Great Plains. [Abstract.] In: Botanical Society of America. 1981. Abstracts of Papers To Be Presented at the Meetings of the Botanical Society of America and Certain Affiliated Groups at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 16--21 August 1981. Oxford, Ohio. P. 63. [Bot. Soc. Amer. Misc. Ser. 160.] Bolick, M. 1986. Commelinaceae. In: Great Plains Flora Association. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. Lawrence, Kans. Pp. 1046--1049. Brown, M. L. and R. G. Brown. 1984. Herbaceous Plants of Maryland. College Park, Md. Celarier, R. P. 1956. A new species of Tradescantia (Commelinaceae) from south Texas. Field & Lab. 24: 5--9. Correll, D. S. 1968. Some additions to the flora of Texas-IV. Madroño 19: 187--192. Gleason, H. A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, ed. 2. Bronx. Hatch, S. L., K. N. Gandhi, and L. E. Brown. 1990. Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Texas. College Station, Tex. Jones, K. and C. Jopling. 1972. Chromosomes and the classification of the Commelinaceae. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 65: 129--162. Lewis, W. H., H. L. Stripling, and R. G. Ross. 1962. Chromosome numbers for some angiosperms of the southern United States and Mexico. Rhodora 64: 147--161. MacRoberts, D. T. 1977. New combinations in Tradescantia. Phytologia 37: 451--452. MacRoberts, D. T. 1978. Notes on Tradescantia: T. diffusa Bush and T. pedicellata Celarier. Phytologia 38: 227--228. MacRoberts, D. T. 1979. Tradescantia ohiensis Rafinesque var. paludosa (Anderson & Woodson) MacRoberts, comb. nov. Phytologia 42: 380--382. MacRoberts, D. T. 1980b. Notes on Tradescantia IV (Commelinaceae): The distinction between T. virginiana and T. hirsutiflora. Phytologia 46: 409--416. Martin, W. C. and C. R. Hutchins. 1980. A Flora of New Mexico. 2 vols. Vaduz. Small, J. K. 1933. Manual of the Southeastern Flora.... New York. Spellenberg, R. 1979. Chromosome numbers from some federally proposed threatened or endangered southwestern angiosperms and other miscellaneous taxa. SouthW. Naturalist 24: 187--206.] Timme, S. L. and R. B. Faden. 1984. Tradescantia longipes Anderson & Woodson (Commelinaceae) in the southeastern United States. Castanea 490: 83--85. Turner, B. L. 1983. New taxa of Tradescantia from northcentral Mexico. Phytologia 52: 369--371. Wunderlin, R. P. 1982. Guide to th