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Commelina eckloniana
Also called Ecklon's Blue Commelina
Commelina eckloniana is a herbaceous dayflower from Central and East Africa, with blue flowers and a broad, variable range; it is grown mainly as a garden or wild plant rather than a common houseplant. Like most dayflowers it is best treated as a low-maintenance plant in warm, seasonally dry conditions.
Commelina eckloniana is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family with a broad distribution in Central and East Africa.
It ranges from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania in the east, west through Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Malawi, into the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. It is considered one of the most diverse species in Africa. Its distinctive characteristics include a fused spathe with sparse hairs, blue flowers with bilocular ovaries, and nearly square fruits containing four seeds that are roughly spherical. It currently contains five subspecies, and at times has been split into five separate species that mostly correspond to the currently recognised subspecies. However, some of the subspecies may be functioning as species, and further study is needed to resolve the question of species limits in this group.
Commelina acutispatha · African Yellow Dayflower · Jio · Carolina dayflower · Ciliate Dayflower · Asiatic dayflower · Creeping Christian · Birdbill dayflower · Climbing dayflower · Commelina ensifolia · Whitemouth dayflower · Commelina
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Commelina eckloniana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
