COMDI
Growth form
Broadleaf
Biological cycle
Annual
Habitat
terrestrial
synonym | Commelina agraria Kunth |
synonym | Commelina agraria var. prostrata (Kunth) Seub. |
synonym | Commelina agraria var. repens Seub. |
synonym | Commelina aquatica J.K.Morton |
synonym | Commelina aquatiquea J.K.Morton |
synonym | Commelina caespitosa Roxb. |
synonym | Commelina cajennensis Kunth [Invalid] |
synonym | Commelina canariensis C.Sm. |
synonym | Commelina cayennensis Rich. |
synonym | Commelina communis Engelm. ex Kunth [Illegitimate] |
synonym | Commelina diffusa f. glabra (G.Mey.) Rohweder |
synonym | Commelina diffusa subsp. aquatica (J.K.Morton) Ogwal |
synonym | Commelina diffusa subsp. aquatiquea (J.K.Morton) Ogwal |
synonym | Commelina diffusa subsp. diffusa |
synonym | Commelina diffusa var. cordispatha Rohweder |
synonym | Commelina diffusa var. major Kayama |
synonym | Commelina formosa Graham |
synonym | Commelina glabra G.Mey. |
synonym | Commelina gracilis Ruiz & Pav. |
synonym | Commelina gracilis var. glabrata C.Presl |
synonym | Commelina longicaulis Jacq. |
synonym | Commelina nudiflora f. agraria (Kunth) C.B.Clarke |
synonym | Commelina nudiflora var. glabrata (G.Mey.) C.B.Clarke |
synonym | Commelina nudiflora var. sellowiana (Kunth) Hicken |
synonym | Commelina nudiflora var. werneana (Hassk.) C.B.Clarke |
synonym | Commelina obtusifolia Vahl |
synonym | Commelina ochreata Schauer |
synonym | Commelina pacifica Vahl |
synonym | Commelina pilosa Pers. |
synonym | Commelina pilosula Rich. |
synonym | Commelina prostrata Poepp. ex Kunth |
synonym | Commelina sellowiana Kunth |
synonym | Commelina werneana Hassk. |
Bengali |
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Comorian |
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Creoles and pidgins; French-based |
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Créole Maurice |
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Créole Réunion |
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Créole Seychelles |
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English |
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Hindi |
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Malagasy |
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Malgache |
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Other |
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Taki-taki |
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Commelina diffusa is a terrestrial, annual or vivacious, prostrate herb, up to 100 cm long, rooting at nodes. Roots fibrous, white or brown. Stem rounded, solid, glabrous, succulent. Stipules absent. Leaves simple, alternate spiral, sessile, lanceolate, elliptic, or ovate, glabrous on both sides, margins entire, succulent, apex acute, base clasping, parallel veined, leaf sheats present, rounded in cross section, hairy, ligules absent. Flowers bisexual, grouped in axillary or terminal inflorescences, covered by a spathe. The spathe edges are free in the base, long from 1 to 3,5cm, shortly pedunculated and hairless. Flowers single or few, stalked, blue, petals 3, free. Fruit a capsule, opening with 3 valves.
First leaves elliptic, 2 to 3cm long and 1 to 2cm wide. Limb subsessile, hairless, with parallel nerves and the margin not wavy.
Roots fibrous, white or brown.
Creeping branched stem, pubescence on the stem is variable and ranges from glabrous to hispidulous, which can occur either in a line or throughout.
0.8-2.5 cm wide to 8cm long. The leaf blades are relatively variable, ranging from lanceolate to ovate, with proximal leaves tending to be more oblong. They measure 3 to 12 cm in length by 0.8 to 3 cm in width. North American populations tend to have smaller leaf size, typically measuring 1.5 to 5 cm, by 0.5 by 1.8 cm. The leaf apex is acute to acuminate. Leaf surface can be either glabrous (i.e. hairless) or hispid (i.e. bristly). Very variable as to pubescence, In West Java there is a form with densely, shaggy bracts and hair under the leaf surface.The leaves are subsessile (i.e. having a very small petiole) with a leaf sheath striped with red and covered with hispid pubescence.
FlowerSpathes 10-35 mm. The flowers are arranged into cincinni (singular: cincinnus), or scorpioid cymes. This is a form of a monochasium where the lateral branches arise alternately on opposite sides of the false axis. There are typically two cincinni present, with the lower cincinnus bearing 2 to 4 flowers, while the upper cincinnus has one to several flowers. The upper cincinnus is generally exerted on specimens with larger spathes, but it may be included in specimens with smaller spathes. The upper cincinnus bears only male flowers and has a longer peduncle, while the lower cincinnus bears bisexual flowers on a shorter peduncle. The pedicels supporting single flowers, and later the fruits, are thick and curved and measure about 3 to 5 mm. The membranous sepals are inconspicuous at only 3 to 4 mm in length. The petals are blue, though may be lavender in rare cases. The upper two petals measure 4.2 to 6 mm. The anther connective (i.e. the tissue connecting the two halves of the anther) of the centre-most stamen has a broad transverse band of violet. The spathes are solitary, borne on a peduncle and typically falcate (i.e. sickle-shaped) with a cordate (i.e. heart-shaped) to rounded base, acuminate apices and can be either glabrous or hispidulous (i.e. minutely hispid) beneath. They usually measure 0.8 to 2.5 cm long, but may be as short as 0.5 cm and as long as 4 cm. They are typically 0.4 by 1.2 cm wide, but may be up to 1.4 cm long. Their peduncles are usually 0.5 to 2 cm long and rarely up to 2.9 cm. Flowering occurs from May to November.
The fruit is a capsule with small spherical seeds.
5 seeds per capsule, reticulate-ribbed, elongated, brownish, long from 2 to 3mm.
Attributions | dummy |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY_SA |
References |
Madagascar: Commelina diffusa flowers and fruits from February to June.
Mayotte: C. diffusa flowers and fruits all year long
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Commelina diffusa is an annual to vivacious species. It propagates by seeds and by layering of segments of broken stems. Seeds and stem fragments are spread by water, animals and tillage tools.
Attributions | dummy |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY_SA |
References |
Commelina diffusa differs from C. benghalensis L. by the absence of hairs on the margins of the pseudopetiole, by a very elongated spathe, with glabrous faces and an unwelded back. The first flowers are long pedicelled.
Commelina diffusa subsp. scandens differs from C. diffusa by its larger size, more robust appearance, with pubescent internodes and sheath, linear leaves and ventral fruit lodge 3 mm long, and dull purple (Madagascar) to bright blue (Southern Africa) flowers; whereas C. diffusa is smaller and less robust, with glabrous internodes and sheath, lanceolate leaves and the ventral fruit compartment is 1 to 1.5 mm long, the flowers are bright blue, the outer petal less colored. Moreover, C. diffusa subsp. scandens is mainly a species of humid to flooded environments while C. diffusa grows in dry as well as humid to flooded environments.
In Madagascar, C. diffusa subsp. scandens is a ruderal species and a common weed of wet places all over the island while C. diffusa is a dominant weed in the dry semi-arid zone of the southwest.
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Blue flowers | spathe (*) open | Glabrous sheath | Commelina diffusa | |
Pubescent sheath | Commelina diffusa subsp. scandens | |||
spathe (*) fused at the base | Sheath of leaves without oreillette | Red hairs on the sheath, stalked leaf, wavy and more than 20 mm wide | Commelina benghalensis | |
No red hairs on the sheath, sessile leaf, leaf wavy and narrow, less than 20 mm wide | Commelina forskaolii | |||
sheath of leaves elongated by two oreillettes | Leaf very elongated, white hairs on the margin and auricles |
Commelina erecta | ||
Leaf as large as longue, reddish stem | Commelina lagosensis | |||
fYellow to pink flowers | spathe (*) fused at the base | Commelina nigritana | ||
spathe (*) open | Leaves very narrow (4 mm) | Commelina subulata | ||
Leaves lanceolate | Glabrous sheath | Commelina africana var. africana | ||
Pubescente sheath | Commelina africana var. krebsiana |
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Commelina diffusa is commonly found in moist fields, along ditches, on waste land and under bamboo, on soils rich in clay or humus, from sea-level up to 2000 m altitude.
Comoros : Commelina diffusa is present in the three islands in shaded and humid environment, especially in the zones of low altitudes until 800 m.
Madagascar: This species grows in alluvial soils, ferruginous soils and humus-bearing ferralitic soils, fairly fertile in sunny or lightly shaded areas. One meets it at the edge of the ways and the cultures. It is a weed of semi-intensive rainfed crops (rainfed rice, maize, cotton, groundnut, vegetable crops) in almost all agro-ecological zones of Madagascar.
Mauritius: Common species developing in general in humid station.
Mayotte: C: diffusa is a common native species in a wide range of open or secondarized wetlands, in marshes, river and lake banks, ditches, crops, wastelands, gardens, roadsides, urban areas.
Reunion: The species develops on deep soils, in shaded and fresh, even humid situation. It is generally localized in the littoral zones or of average altitude.
Seychelles: Species of clearings and abandoned places. It is rarely abundant.
West Indies: The abundance of Commelina diffusa is closely linked to humid, shady conditions and intensive agricultural practices (absence of fallow land, rotations, repeated chemical weeding, heavy fertilisation, etc.). It does not compete well with other grasses and becomes less abundant in plots with a high floristic diversity.
Attributions | dummy |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY_SA |
References |
Origin
Commelina diffusa is native to Africa and tropical Asia.
Worldwide distribution
It is present in tropical America and the Caribbean, USA, tropical and subtropical Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
Attributions | dummy |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY_SA |
References |
Local harmfulness
Benin: rare and not very abundant.
Burkina Faso: rare and not abundant.
Chad: rare but abundant when present.
Comoros: Commelina diffusa is a weed that is present in all crops.
Côte d'Ivoire: frequent and generally abundant.
Ghana: rare but abundant when present.
Madagascar: C. diffusa is a frequent and locally abundant weed in sub-humid or semi-arid production areas. It is a particularly damaging species in cotton cultivation (southwest) because of its rapid vegetative (and seed) propagation due to its succulent stems that resist desiccation after weeding.
Mali: Rare but abundant when present.
Mauritius: A fairly rare weed in crops, with low to medium pest pressure.
Mayotte: C. diffusa is a weed present in 7% of cultivated plots, particularly in ylang crops in the north of the island.
Nigeria: frequent and generally abundant.
Reunion: C. diffusa infests both sugarcane fields and vegetable, pineapple and lentil crops. It is infrequent (Fr < 30%) and not very abundant, and therefore does not present any particular problem in cultivation. Its biology is very similar to that of C. benghalensis.
Senegal: rare and not very abundant.
Seychelles: A weed with low nuisance value.
Tanzania: frequent and not very abundant.
Uganda: rare but abundant when present.
West Indies: Commelina diffusa is a weed that causes little damage to sugarcane crops. On the other hand, it is locally abundant in banana plantations, vegetable and food crops in rainy areas where it is difficult to control when it forms a significant cover. This species constitutes an agent of dissemination of the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), which is particularly damaging to a large number of fruit, vegetable and food crops (characteristic symptoms: chlorotic mosaic of the leaves and deformations of the leaves, flowers and fruits, as well as a "stunting" of the infected plant)
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Medicinal: In Peninsular Malaysia, the leaves are widely used for poulticing sores. In Indonesia, the crushed leaves and stems are used for irregular menstruation. Dirty wounds are poultice with the mucilage from the stems. In some areas, leaves are used as an ointment and absorptive. Leaves are used as an abortifacient, also used against infected wounds.
Food: The leaves are edible and may be used as a vegetable.
Animal feed: In Comoros Commelina diffusa is used as a fodder species.
Attributions | dummy |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY_SA |
References |
Global control
Cultivation: It is particularly difficult to control by cultivation, partly because broken pieces of above and below ground stems readily take root. With hand weeding, it is necessary to uproot all the plant from the soil to ensure effectiveness.
Biological control: Very few natural enemies have been reported to attack C. diffusa and, of this, only two agromyzid leaf miners from the Americas appear promising (Amauromyza sp. and Liriomyza commelinae from Diptera family).
Chemical control: Post-emergence application of 2,4-D at 500 g/ha.
Management recommandations for annual broadleaf weeds in irrigated and lowland rice in Africa, see: http://portal.wiktrop.org/document/show/20
Management recommandations for vivacious broad-leaved weeds in rice fields: http://portal.wiktrop.org/document/show/26
Local control
Madagascar: In Madagascar C. diffusa is controlled only by manual weeding.
Attributions | dummy |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY_SA |
References |
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Commelina%2520diffusa
Attributions | |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Root | Root |
Kingdom | Plantae |
Phylum | Tracheophyta |
Class | Liliopsida |
Order | Commelinales |
Family | Commelinaceae |
Genus | Commelina |
Species | Commelina diffusa Burm.f. |