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Commelina

(c) Luís Roberto da Silva, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Luís Roberto da Silva · cc-by-nc

EntityQ161075· pop 33· linked from 86 articles

Also known as dayflower

Commelina is a genus of approximately 208 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''.

Species

whitemouth dayflower

GENUS

  1. KingdomPlantae
  2. PhylumTracheophyta
  3. ClassLiliopsida
  4. OrderCommelinales
  5. FamilyCommelinaceae
Native toAlabama, Amur, Andaman Is., Angola, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Arizona, Arkansas, Aruba, Assam, Bahamas, Bangladesh
Observations41,896
Observations recorded209,244

Common Name: Wandering Jew

via GBIF · Kew POWO

Museum specimens

Specimen records
4,576
With media
2,720
Family
Commelinaceae
Collections
CICY, INECOL, FCB-BUAP, IEA-UAT, FC-UNAM, GH
Recorded in
Mexico, Belice

Wikidata facts

Instance of
taxon
Parent taxon
Commelineae
Image
Commelina communis 001.jpg
Show 7 more facts
taxonomic type
Commelina communis
taxon rank
genus
taxon name
Commelina
Commons category
Commelina
topic's main category
Category:Commelina
taxon common name
komelina
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

2 sections
Contents
  • Description
  • References

Commelina is a genus of approximately 208 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.

The dayflowers are herbs that may be either perennial or annual. They are characterised by their zygomorphic flowers and by the involucral bracts called spathes that surround the flower stalks. These spathes are often filled with a mucilaginous liquid. Each spathe houses either one or two scorpioid cymes, with the upper cyme being either vestigial or bearing from one to several typically male flowers, and the lower cyme bearing several flowers. All members of the genus have alternate leaves.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Commelina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (5)