Commelina erecta [family COMMELINACEAE]

Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Commelina erecta [family COMMELINACEAE]
Common names
C. undulata R. Br., Prodr. 270 (1810); C. B. CI. in A. DC, Monogr. Phan. 3: 179 (1881) excl. var. setosa C. B. CI.; Rolla Rao in Notes R. bot. Gdn Edinb. 26: 351 (1966). Syntypes: N. Australia, R. Brown 5735, 5736 (bothBM!, PRE, photo.!). C. bainesii C.B. CI. in A. DC, Monogr. Phan. 3: 184 (1881), and in F.T.A. 8: 57 (1901). Type: Zimbabwe, S.W. of Bulawayo, Baines (K!). C. gerrardii C.B. CI. in A. DC, Monogr. Phan. 3: 183 (1881), and in F.C. 7: 11 (1897). Type: Natal, Gerrard (K, hole).
Information
Perennials (chamaephytes), erect or spreading and rooting at nodes; roots hard, when young covered with a velamen of root-hairs. Leaves narrowly ovate-attenuate, 60-120 mm long, pseudo-petiolate at junc­tion of lamina with apex of auriculate, ciliate sheath, margins minutely white-pustulate, glabrous or puberulous. Spathe pedunculate and solitary or clustered apically, fused, broadly ovate-acute, 15-30 mm long, glabrous to puberulous. Lower cyme absent. Flowers with petals blue. Capsule with 3 one-seeded locules; dorsal locule indehiscent, tuberculate, seed fused to wall; ventral locules dehiscent, smooth; seeds globose smooth, farinose. Fig. 6: 4.
Habitat
In this species, as in C. forskaolii (no. 7), the dorsal indehiscent locule of the ripe capsule breaks away with the included seed and part of the adjoining walls of the 2 ventral locules, thus setting free their seeds as well. The ventral locule walls attached to the dorsal locule take on the shape of a shallow cup.
Use
14. Commelina erecta L., Sp. PI. 1: 41 (1753); Dill., Hort. eltham., tab. 77, fig. 88. Type: to be decided.
Range
A species first described from N. America; common in Asia and Africa, coming as far south as Natal and the E. Cape, where it is common on dunes or sandy fiats near the sea; also found in wet habitats, e.g. in spray of Rua-cana Falls in South West Africa/Namibia. The spathes are single and shortly pedicelled in typical plants but, especially along the Natal coast, they become clustered and sessile. Map 31.
Commelina erecta [family COMMELINACEAE]
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