Also called “Wandering Jew,” and a close relative of the Wandering Jew often found in supermarket hanging baskets. This is the Asiatic Dayflower: the two upper petals are pure blue; the lower one is white. Virginia Dayflower, a native but rarer species probably not found in our area, has a blue lower petal. The flowers close in the late afternoon; thus the name. We find this common flower everywhere, blooming all summer till frost; here it was blooming in a city yard in Beechview.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
COMMELINA [Plum.] L. DAY-FLOWER
Flowers irregular. Sepals somewhat colored, unequal;
the 2 lateral partly united. Two lateral petals
rounded or kidney-shaped, on long claws, the odd one
smaller. Stamens unequal, 3 of them fertile, one of
which is bent inward; 3 of them sterile and smaller,
with imperfect cross-shaped anthers; filaments naked.
Often procumbent and rooting at the joints. Leaves
contracted at base into sheathing petioles; the floral
one heart-shaped and clasping, folded together or
hooded, forming a spathe inclosing the flowers, which
expand for a single morning and are recurved on their
pedicel before and afterward. Petals blue. Flowering
all summer. Ours all with perennial roots, or
propagating by striking root from the joints.
(Dedicated to the early Dutch botanists J. and G.
Commelin.)
C. communis L. Slender and creeping, nearly
glabrous; leaves lanceolate, 2-5 cm. long; spathe
cordate, acute, with margins not united; seeds
shallowly pitted, granulate-reticulated. (C. nudiflora
auth., not L.) Alluvial banks, Del. to Fla., w. to
Kan. and Tex. A frequent weed of dooryards and
gardens, northeastw. to e. Mass. (E. Asia, Trop. reg.)
