Commelina polyspatha Wight

Pellegrini, Marco O. O., Cornejo, Xavier, Morais, Isa Lucia De, De Almeida, Rafael F. & Michelan, Thaisa S., 2025, We are the Crystal Gems: taxonomic revision of the gem-fruited species of Commelina L. (Commelinaceae, Commelinales) and their allies, European Journal of Taxonomy 1020, pp. 1-94 : 86-87

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.1020.3073
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17206679
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03FC3925-FFB7-FFF3-415F-06719172FC57
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Commelina polyspatha Wight
status

Treatment

Commelina polyspatha Wight View in CoL

Commelina polyspatha Wight View in CoL ( Wight 1853: pl. 2066). – Trithyrocarpus polyspatha (Wight) Hassk. ( Hasskarl 1866: 211) View in CoL , Syn. nov.

Type material

INDIA – Bolamputty Mountains • near Coimbatore ; Nov. 1852; fl., fr.; R. Wight s.n.; lectotype: K [ K000794525 ]!, designated here; isolectotype: K [ K000794526 ]! pro parte, material on the upper half of the sheet .

Accepted species

Commelina paludosa Blume.

Remarks

Commelina polyspatha represents a synonym of the Asian C. paludosa and is thus excluded from the Neotropical gem-fruited species. As aforementioned, this species presents a vestigial and flowerless upper cincinnus, capsules 3-valved, with 1-seeded locules, seeds with smooth testa, embryotega lateral, and hilum curved. These characters make it very similar to C. scabrata , which, aside from the obvious intercontinental disjunction, can be differentiated by its paired petals limb with a cuneate base and white claw, antherodes with upper lobes very widely obovate and larger than the lower, lower lobes widely oblong to subquadrangular, unequally 2-valved prismatic capsules with verrucose walls, and seeds with ornate testa. Nonetheless, we have yet to be able to confirm if the capsules of C. paludosa (as well as the closely related C. maculata Edgew. ) also present ventral valves that only split up to mid-length. Further studies are necessary to elucidate the relationship and morphological differences between the Palaeotropical C. maculata and C. paludosa and the Neotropical C. bambusifolia and C. scabrata .