Commelina erecta L.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Commelinaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Decumbent herb to 50 cm long; stems puberulent or glabrescent, rooting at nodes; ascending branches 20-25 cm long. Leaves ascending to spreading; blades 2.6-9.5 x 0.5-2 cm, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, chartaceous, puberulent, especially above, the apex acute to acuminate, the base acute or obtuse, sometimes unequal, the margins entire; sheath tubular, 0.8-1.6 cm long, ciliate and often auriculate at apex. Inflorescences solitary or 2-3 at end of branches; peduncle 0.7-2.2 cm long; spathaceous bract green, pilose externally, 1.7-2.5 cm long, broadly ovate, longitudinally folded inward into a boat-shaped structure, with margins connate only at base, containing 1 or 2 cymes; cymes 1-3- flowered. Flowers barely exserted from the spathaceous bract; pedicels ca. 3.5 mm long. Sepals 4-5 mm long, whitish-hyaline, the lower 2 connate; paired petals blue, 1-1.5 cm long, the claw sometimes whitish, the lower petal minute, white, linear; filaments of fertile stamens white, curved; ovary ovoid-globose, green, the style elongate, white, curved toward the minutely capitate stigma. Capsule trilocular, 5-6 mm wide, beige, 1 locule warty, indehiscent, 2 smooth, dehiscent. Seeds 1 per locule, light brown, smooth, ca. 2.7 mm long.
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Discussion
Common name: French grass.
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Distribution
A common weedy herb of open, disturbed humid areas. Great Cmz Bay (A2357), Little C m z Bay (A859). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Tortola; throughout temperate and tropical America and tropical Africa.
Africa| Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|