FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 1/7 



perianth segments 6, the inner ones petallike, violet-colored; stamens 

 6; stigmas 3, spreading. 



1. Tillandsia recurvata L., Sp. PL ed. 2, 410. 1762. 



Santa Cruz County, in Sycamore Canyon, near Ruby (Phillips in 

 1910), and in Flux Canyon, Patagonia Mountains (E. B. Bartram, 

 Peebles and Bartram 10611), 4,000 to 5,000 feet. Florida to Texas', 

 southeastern Arizona; widely distributed in tropical America. 



Ballmoss. This is the only flowering epiphytic plant in Arizona. 

 In Flux Canyon it grows on the branches of live oaks (Qwrcus emoryi 

 and Q. toumeyi). The Arizona specimens have exceptionally short 

 peduncles. 



14. COMMELIXACEAE. Spiderwort family 



Leaves alternate, with sheathing bases; flowers perfect, regular or 

 irregular, subtended by bracts, these spathelike or leaflike; outer 

 perianth segments sepallike, the inner ones petallike, showy, fugacious : 

 stamens 6, all perfect or some of them sterile; capsule 3-celled. 



Key to the genera 



1. Inflorescences subtended by a single bract, this spathelike; flowers irregular; 

 fertile stamens usually 3; filaments naked 1. Co-»imelixa. 



1. Inflorescences subtended by several bracts, these not spathelike; flowers regular; 

 .-tamens 6, all perfect: filaments bearded below 2. Tradescaxtia. 



1. COMMELINA" Dayflower 



Stems weak, erect to procumbent; bract strongly compressed, the 

 two halves folded together; flowers irregular, the petallike inner 

 perianth segments blue or white, unequal, the lateral ones larger; 

 sterile stamens with 4-lobed, empty anthers. 



Some of the species are said to have the propertv of stopping; blood 

 flow. 



Key to the species 



1. Floral bracts 3 to 6 cm. long, not connate at base, long-acuminate (the tip 

 usually equaling or longer than the body of the bract), glabrous, puberu- 

 lent, or sparsely pubescent with short, mostly appressed hairs: roots 

 tuberous thickened: stems simple to much branched, usually erect but 

 sometimes decumbent: all of the petals blue 1. C. diaxthifolia. 



1. Floral bracts not more than 3 cm. long, connate below, acute or short-acuminate 

 (the tip much shorter than the body of the bracts, pubescent with short, 

 subappressed hairs and (especially toward base) with long, more spreading, 

 flaccid hairs; roots thick but scarcely tuberous; stems much branched, 

 decumbent or spreading; one petal white 2. C. crista. 



1. Commelina dianthifolia Delile in Redout., Liliac. 7: pi. 390. 1801. 

 Apache and Coconino Counties, southward to Cochise, Santa Cruz, 



and Pima Counties, 4,500 to 9,500 feet, commonly in pine woods. 

 Xew Mexico, Arizona, and nearly throughout Mexico. 



2. Commelina crispa Wooton, Torrey Bot. Club Bui. 25: 451. 1S9S. 

 Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 3,500 to 5,000 feet. 



"Missouri to Colorado and Arizona. 



1B Reference: Pennei.l. F. W. the gent? commelina (plumier) 1. in the united states. Torrey 

 Bot. Club Bui. 43: 90-111. 1916. 



