COMMELINACEAE SPIDERWORT FAMILY 
DAY FLOWER 
Commelina communis L. 
Although the Day Flower is a dooryard weed, its pretty 
though small flowers should be familiar to everyone. The 
plant is common in alluvial soil from southern New York to 
Florida, west to Kansas 
and Texas, and has been 
reported northeastward 
to Massachusetts. 
Its stems are slender 
and creeping, sometimes 
rooting at the nodes. 
They are smooth or 
nearly so, and grow I-3 
feet long. The leaves 
are also smooth, and 
their bases, thin and 
white with green veins, 
form sheaths about the 
stem. The upper leaves 
are folded in such a way 
as to form a spathe en- 
closing the flowers. 
Each of the deep 1 
blue flowers opens only | 
one morning. The pedi- 
cel, curved downward so Vf 
that the bud is nodding, 
straightens up while the 1c 
flower is in bloom and 
curves down again after- 
wards. The 3 sepals are somewhat unequal in size and the 2 
larger are often slightly united. The 3 petals are also unequal, 
2 large and 1 small. Of the 3 perfect stamens I is curved forward 
and has a large anther. There are an additional 3 imperfect 
stamens which are smaller and have cross-shaped anthers but 
produce no pollen. There is 1 pistil with an undivided style and 
stigma. The fruit is a 2-celled capsule with 2 dark brown, 
compressed and roughened seeds in each cell. 
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