Comelina difussa
Family: Commelinaceae
Plant Description: Succulent annual with creeping stems to 1 m long and lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate leaves 8-18 mm wide, alternate. Large petals 5-8 mm wide, blue, bilateral, emerging from a folded bract, the edges not grown together; petals 3 with 2 large and one small.
Plant Trivia: Flowers opening early in the morning and closing by noon. The genus Commelina was described and named by Carl Linnaeus. The two showy flower petals and the one insignificant petal reminded him of the three Commelin brothers: Two of them were respected botanists, but the third did not accomplish anything in botany.
Field Identification:
Occurrence: Locally abundant on damp soils in ditches, swales, and ravines and along streams
Bloom Period: March-December
Plant Use:
Key to the species of Commelina:
- All petals blue…………………………………………………………………………..C. diffusa
Smaller petals white……………………………………………………………….C. erecta
stxflora 