Commelina communis - Dayflower?

Thanks - that's certainly it based on the unique flower. We appear to be on the southwestern edge of its U.S. penetration, so is not yet listed in any of the weed references I have for the area. Never would have figured it out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Asiatic dayflower (commelina communis) N. A. distribution

purpleinopp: Thanks for pointing that out! Typed "comelina" (one 'm') when searching the NPD (wildflower.org db) which returned nothing... oops. Should have spelled it "dayflower".

Looks like c. dianthifolia, c. erecta, and c. virginica are all native to our area. So will have to do some additional work to try to tell if what we have is one of these or the import. Will post what I find.

Glad to try to help, I learned that myself from the excellent folks here at GW, just passing it on. Commelinas are a huge and confusing bunch, good luck!!

Okay, here's what I've garnered so far:

Choice quickly narrows to c. communis vs c. erecta as they are the two with flowers having the smaller white third petal. Most notable difference I could find between these are in the spathe. It's smooth and fully open to the base on c. communis while it has hairs and is open on top (or closed towards the base) on c. erecta. Leaves are usually lanceolate on c. erecta and more ovate on c. communis, but there is too much species variation to count on this alone.

In the new photo, I've annotated the closed portion and hairs of the spathe found on our plant. So looks pretty certain that it is one of the c. erecta varieties. I'll try to find a place a few of these can grow to see the mature size and form before making a guess at a subspecies.

Does this sound right?

There's a lot of comparison info posted on the Web, but the following link is to a pdf with the best summary comparison I found.

Here is a link that might be useful: Commelinaceae - Spiderwort Family (pdf)

Good investigation! The Commelina I had ID'd here was in a "wild lawn" at a friend's lake house. Gets mowed a few times a year. The Commelina was congregated near (within 10 feet of) the water, in "high shade" under mature trees with really high lower limbs, only getting morning sun from what I could tell. In that ID request post, someone from Z9 had complained it was taking over her beds. Any moist shade should make it happy.

Here's hoping it's the native one! Good investigation on your part.

Here is a link that might be useful: Another link

I hope it's the native, too. The Asian import is horribly invasive and very hard to get rid of.

Hi bostedo. Your plant appears to be C. erecta. C. communis is easy to differentiate, because it has yellowish, false anthers with distinctive brown centers. I've added a photo from a local C. communis plant for comparison.

purpleinopp: This may be a tougher Texas strain. It took hold in a Mondo Grass border that went dormant during a record 100+ degree F heatwave in 2011. It has thrived on one deep watering per week in full sun along a concrete walk - likely one of the hottest spots in our yard. However, the border was removed earlier this year and apparently some Dayflowers were included with the MG transplanted to a very shady spot. As photo shows it's taking a more upright form and not blooming yet in the shade, but otherwise seems happy. The spot is isolated, so will let them go and see what happens. Will have to deal with the others to keep them from expanding into the St Augustine now that the barrier is gone.

esh_ga: Thanks for the link. Had a couple other differences that were good to note.

jekeesl: Wow, that's the more obvious kind of difference I was hoping for. Wonder why it was not included in other the comparisons. Maybe like leaf shape, it works for most cases, but there are occasional exceptions? Either way, it's a great initial check. Thanks for pointing it out.

Included a link to some nice labeled images of c. communis covering features that are similar/common to c. erecta.

Here is a link that might be useful: Commelina communis L. - Asiatic dayflower

Nice details in that link. I love them all, one of the few true blue flowers. Would you have an interest in trading some of your plant? Please send me a private message if so.