Flora of Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, India (2000)- Description & Keys-
Commelina attenuata,
Commelina benghalensis,
Commelina clavata,
Commelina diffusa,
Commelina ensifolia,
Commelina erecta,
Commelina longifolia &
Commelina paludosa . Flora of Davanagere District, Karnataka, India By B. K. Manjunatha, V. Krishna, T. Pullaiah (2004)- Description & Keys-
Commelina attenuata,
Commelina benghalensis,
Commelina diffusa,
Commelina ensifolia,
Commelina erecta,
Commelina forskalaei &
Commelina subulata
.
May be this key will be helpful to identify few common Commelina’s in field ……
1. Spathes with margin free to base … C. diffusa
1. Spathes with margins fused at least basally ……..2
2. Inflorescence (Spathe) solitary, axiallary or terminal …….3
2. Inflorescence composed of several aggregate, axillary or terminal spathe …4
3. Flowers white ……….. C. suffruticosa
3. Flowers blue ……..5
5. Spathe funnel shaped ……..C. benghalensis
5. Spathe broadly ovate……. C. forskalaei
4. Sheath with rusty hairs at the summit ….. C. paludosa
4. Sheath lacking rusty hairs ……. C. ensifolia .
As per efi thread :
C. forskalaei resembles C. benghalensis in having sub-terranian cleistogamous flowers, undulate leaf margin and cucullate spatathe. But differs from C. benghalensis in its elliptic leaves absence of red rufus hairs on the sheath and smooth seeds with ridges and depressions in the testa as against ovate undulate leaves, red rufus hairs in the sheath and reticulate seeds in C. benghalensis .
sk2015sept02/02 – BSI checklist of Commelina : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (2)
This is no particular species photographs. It’s an introduction to my next couple of threads.
Interestingly, Commelina diffusa Burm. f. likely not to be found in our area. This is because Hooghly district (South of West Bengal) doesn’t fall under the BSI specified regional distribution of the species efloraindia.nic.in.
Yet, Sir Prain thought it was distributed in the western & northern provinces of then Bengal. Haines also recorded the same in his book BoBO. lease check the attached literature.
So, I keep the species, C. diffusa Burm.f. in my following table –
C. tuberosa L. also likely to be found in our region as per BSI. But that species is different than the usual ones I see around. So, I left the 9th space of my table blank. I am very surprised that why both FBI and BoBo recorded flowers of C. salicifolia Roxb. are small while Roxburgh himself noted flowers are large and petals are equal..! This is what Lamarck noted on C. longifolia – biodiversitylibrary. BSI informs the species is distributed in Peninsular, E & NE India. Isn’t it surprising that till to date we have no representative in our database? This is the only species I have ever come across which has larger flowers then the rest. I was very confused when … identified two of my threads, featuring this large flower, as C. diffusa Burm f. More so, because earlier Mayur Ji identified a smaller flower (where petals are not equal) a species as C. diffusa Burm.. f. I have Mayur Ji’s paper on C. beddomei and … paper on C. andamanica with me. So. I still feel shaky while writing this.
I came to know that C. coelestis Willd. looks similar in another thread, but differs in some respect – efi thread.
Even the Bangladesh doc i uploaded in one of my recent threads is confusing!
With so many pseudobotanists (me too!) playing in the net there are only two pics of C. longifolia –
Where is Roxburgh’s C. salicifolia, I thought!
As for C. hasskarlii C.B. Clarke, the docs and the links I shared in another my recent thread will tell that it is exceedingly similar to C. diffusa Burm. f. The description in efloras would tell the flowers are of the size of C. benghalensis.
BSi informs C. hasskarlii is distributed throughout our country yet we do not have it in our database!!! Regarding flower size, whatever Haines might have recorded in his book BoBO, there is no question of confusing Commelina longifolia Lam. with C. diffusa Burm.f. (or that with C. hasskarlii C. B. Clarke / C. caroliniana Walter). I paste a couple of links for more reading/viewing for my own reference –
Thank you . Re: completed insertion of images of species of Commelina : 1 post by 1 author. . Commelina (Commelinaceae) page with images of species in efloraofindia : 1 post by 1 author.
Pl. go through Commelina (Commelinaceae) page with images of species (mainly done by …) in efloraofindia. If you find any mis-identification, pl. let us know. If anybody can send images of other species of this genera (for incorporation in the website), if any, it will be really nice.
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