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30. COMMELINACEAE
I. Commelina diffusa Burm. f, Fl. Ind. 18. 1768. (Fig. 118).
Commelina nudiflora Linn.—Commelina communis Walt.—Commelina cacspitosa Roxb.—
Commeiina agrarea Kunth—Commelina salicifolia Bojer—Commelina longicaulis Jacq.—
Tradescantia cristata Naves
Sinh. Girapala; Hindi Kanshura; Sans. Katsapriya, Koshapushpi.
Annual, nearly glabrous, prostrate or subscandent, branching herb, rooting at the rather
distant nodes, tips ascending; leaves simple, 37—7.5 cm long, 1 2—1.6 cm broad, sessile,
lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, glabrous or puberulous, ciliate, sheath 1.2—
2.5'cm long, loose, glabrous; flowers irregular, bisexual, 1.2—1.6 cm broad, shortly
pedicel led. in simple or bifid scorpiod cymes, I to few-flowered, enclosed in a spathe from which
the flowers emerge singly; spathes 1.6—2.5 cm long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, glabrous
or pubescent, base cordate with rounded lobes; sepals 3, small, free or 2 connate; petals 3, the two
interior, large-clawed, orbicular or cordate and dark blue in colour, the third smaller, subsessile
and of a paler blue colouration; stamens 3, perfect, hypogynous, filaments slender, naked, anthers
oblong, one larger than the others; staminodes 3, like stamens but deformed with cruciform
anthers; ovary superior, 3-locular, 2 loculi each 2-ovuIed and the third loculus l-ovuled, style
slender, glabrous, stigma punctiform; capsule 5 mm long, broadly oblong, acuminate, coriaceous,
5-sceded, hidden in the spathe by the decurving of the pedicel after flowering, loculicidally
3-valved with the dorsal valve indehiscent; seeds oblong, tubercled, reticulate and brown in
colour.
Flowers mostly during January.
Illustrations. Burmann fil., Fl. Ind. pi. 1,fig. 2. 1768; Herb. Peradeniya drawing.
Distribution. Grows throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of India, Ceylon,
Malay Pennisula, China and in the Philippine Islands. It is a very common herb in shady places
amongst grass in the low-country in Ceylon. '
Ceylon. Central Prov., Pelwehera Tank, Simpson 9814, June 1932; Peradeniya, Bot.
Gard., Herb. Peradeniya., Jan. 1889; Talawakelle, Watagoda Road, Simpson 8913,Nov. 1931;
Ambawela, A. M. Silva, f4arch 1906; Haputale, A. M. Silva, May 1906. Malaya. Perak: Wray
Jr. 799. Indo-China. Hue and vicinity, Squires 12, Jan.—May 1927.
Uses. The bruised plant is applied to burns, itches and boils with beneficial results.
In Ghana, it is pounded with seeds of Leea guineensis G. Don and Piper nigrum, made into a
poultice in a heated plantain leaf and applied for relief of swellings of the groin. An eye lotion
is prepared from it in Nigeria.
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