COMMELINACEAE 137 
perfect. Sepals short, imbricate. Petals violet, free, erect, supplied at 
the base with 2 small scales. Stamens 6. Ovary inferior, fleshy, the base 
broad, adnate to or immersed in the fleshy rachis; style filiform. Fruit 
fleshy, cone-like, composed of the densely spirally arranged, connate, 
mature ovaries and fleshy rachis, the bracteoles persistent, and crowned 
by a rosette of reduced leaves. (From a native American name.) 
A single variable species, native of South America, now cultivated in 
all tropical countries. 
1. A. sativus Schultz (Ananassa sativa Lindl.). Pifa (Sp.); Pineapple. 
Leaves numerous, linear-lanceolate, 1 to 1.5 m long, 5 to 7 em wide, 
acuminate, the margins sharply spiny-toothed, green and shining on the 
upper surface, the lower surface pale beneath, those subtending the in- 
florescence red, at least at the base, much reduced. Stem erect, 0.5 to 
1.5m high. Heads terminal, solitary, cvoid, 6 to 8 em long, much enlarged 
in fruit; bracteoles reddish, numerous, triangular-ovate to oblong-ovate, 
acute, imbricated. Sepals 3, ovate, thick, fleshy, about 1 em long. Petals 
3, oblanceolate, about 2 cm long, white below, violet-purple above. Mature 
fruit up to 20 cm long or more. (FI. Filip. pl. 548, Ananassa sativa.) 
Commonly cultivated, fi. Jan—Apr.; throughout the Philippines in cul- 
tivation and in some places, at least, subspontaneous. Introduced by the 
Spaniards at an early date. 
21. COMMELINACEAE (SPIDERWORT OR ALICBANGON 
FAMILY) 
Herbs, sometimes suffrutescent, spreading, ascending, or sometimes 
climbing. Leaves entire, more or less succulent, parallel-veined, sheathing 
at the base. Inflorescence fascicled, cymose, or paniculate, axillary or 
terminal. Flowers perfect, irregular or nearly regular. Sepals 3, usually 
green, persistent or deciduous. Petals 3, white, purplish, or yellow, free 
or united in a tube below. Stamens 6, inserted on the base of the segments, 
all perfect or 2 or more reduced to staminodes, the filaments often bearded. 
Ovary free, superior, 2- or 3-celled; ovules 1 or few in each cell. Capsule 
loculicidal or indehiscent. 
Genera about 26, species more than 300, tropical and subtropical, 7 
genera and about 20 species in the Philippines. 
1. Fertile stamens 3 or 2, staminodes or imperfect stamens 1 to 3. 
2. Flowers included im spathe-like bracts.......0....0022202.22--...---- 1. Commelina 
2. Flowers panicled or axillary, spathe-like bracts none........ 2. Aneilema 
1. Fertile stamens 6. 
2. Petals free or nearly free; flowers numerous, crowded in compressed, 
spathe-like, axillary bracts; ovary-cells 1-ovuled; cultivated only. 
3. Rhoeo 
2. Petals more or less united into a tube. 
3. Sepals free or united only at the base; inflorescence 1- to several- 
flowered, from imbricating bracts; leaves green............ 4, Cyanotis 
3. Sepals united into a tube; flowers beteween the two terminal leaves, 
not bracteate; leaves green and purple with paler stripes. 
5. Zebrina 
1. COMMELINA Linnaeus 
Usually slender herbs, the stems more or less branched, succulent, pros- 
trate and rooting below. Flowers blue, in usually 2-flowered cymes, emerg- 
