Commelina subulata Roth

Global description

Commelina subulata is an erect plant more or less branched, with linear leaves. The flowers are yellow apricot, grouped in solitary spathes arranged at the nodes of the terminal axes. The spathes are subsessile, glabrous on the faces and finely ciliated on the edges, the lips are free at the back, behind to the peduncle.

Cotyledon

The cotyledon is not apparent because it remains in the seed.

First leaf

The first sheet is linear. It is 3 cm long and 3 mm wide. The lower part forms a leafy sheath whose margin is provided with multicellular hairs. The limb is shaped like a gutter.

General habit

The port is erected in a simple axis, sometimes more or less ramified. The plant is 10 to 60 cm tall.

Underground system

The roots are fasciculate at the base of the plant. Some roots can also be emitted from the lower nodes of the plant. They are fibrous, 1 mm in diameter and 10 to 20 cm long.

Stem

The stem is cylindrical, solid and glabrous.

Leaf

The leaves are alternate, linear in shape. They are 3 to 15 cm long and 1 to 5 mm wide. The veins are alternating at the starting point and parallel to the central vein. The base of the blade forms a leafy sheath around the stem. The margin of this sheath is lined with multicellular hairs. The margin of the limb is entire. The upper and lower faces are dotted with a few hairs. The blade is frequently folded along the midrib, giving the leaf a gutter appearance.

Flower

The flowers are grouped by 2 or 3 in a leafy spathe triangular. These spathes are inserted solitarily in the axil of a leafy bract, at the nodes of the terminal axes. The spathe is 5 to 15 mm long. It has a tapered base tapering into a very small peduncle (less than 5 mm long). The back part of the spathe is truncated, while the front part forms a longer or shorter beak. The lips are free at the back to the peduncle. The faces are glabrous, while the edges are finely ciliated with multicellular hairs. The flowers, 1 cm in diameter, are yellow apricot, very rarely blue. They have 3 petals of which one is extremely reduced. The other two are rounded and abruptly filiform at the base.

Fruit

The fruit is a capsule with 3 dehiscent cells (1 ventral box and 2 dorsal boxes). There may be 1 to 3 capsules per spathe.

Seed

The seeds are 5 in number per capsule: 1 large seed in the ventral box and 2 seeds in the 2 dorsal boxes. The seeds are of ellipsoidal shape (those of the dorsal boxes are truncated base). They are 2 to 2.5 mm long. They are dark gray in color and have a rough surface, traversed transversely by 2-4 deep furrows.

 

https://www.gbif.org/species/2764438