284 



COMMELINACEAE 



Commelina 



50 



Map 589 



Commelina communis L. 



Top of leaf sheath with long, rusty hairs; plants relatively robust and erect; leaves 

 mostly lanceolate, usually 2-5 cm wide and 8-20 cm long; all petals blue and 

 nearly equal; capsules 3-celled, one cell 1-seeded and indehiscent, the other two 



cells with 2 seed each, sometimes one seed aborting 3. C. virginica. 



Top of leaf sheath without long, rusty hairs; plants rather slender, erect or ascend- 

 ing; leaves linear or lance-linear, smaller than those of the preceding; two petals 

 blue, one white and much smaller; capsules 3-celled, 1 seed in each cell, 1 cell 

 indehiscent, rotund. 

 Leaves linear to linear-lanceolate; posterior petals usually 10-15 (20) mm long; 

 anterior petal about 1 mm wide; seed of an orbicular type.. .4. C. angustifolia. 

 Leaves lanceolate; posterior petals usually 12-25 mm long, the anterior one rudi- 

 mentary, usually about 1 mm wide and 3-5 mm long 5. C. erecta. 



1. Commelina communis L. (Pennell. "Commelina communis" in the 

 Eastern United States. Bartonia 19: 19-22. 1938.) Common Dayflower. 

 Map 589. My specimens are mostly from moist soil along roadsides and 

 in cultivated grounds. Three specimens were measured in the field and 

 their measurements are as follows: blades of the blue petals 5-11 mm 

 wide and about as long; the white one about 3 mm wide and 5 mm long. 



Peattie (Amer. Midland Nat. 10: 130. 1926. Note that in this volume 

 there are two pages numbered 130) described and named a form of this 

 species. He says this is a form with "the branches in whorls of 3-5 and 

 the leaves broadly ovate; large ovate-lanceolate papery bracts accompany 

 each verticel." Type specimen in the Field Museum, collected near Pine, 

 Lake County, October 31, 1908, by C. W. Duesner. I have seen this 

 specimen and I believe it is only a late autumnal form of the species. 



Nat. of e. Asia; Mass. to N. C, westw. to Mo., Kans., and Tex. 



2. Commelina diffusa Burm. f. (Jour. Arnold Arb. 18: 64-65. 1937.) 

 (Commelina longicaulis Jacq. and Commelina nudiftora of Britton and 

 Brown, Illus. Flora, ed. 2.) Map 590. In moist, wet, or muddy places along 

 streams and in ditches and cultivated grounds in the southern part of the 

 state. The petals are very variable in size. Five specimens were measured 

 in the field and the measurements are as follows: the blades of the largest 

 petals ranged from 2.25-10 mm wide and about as long, the smallest were 



