Latin name

Commelina diffusa Burm. f.

Family

Commelinaceae

Common name(s)

Spreading dayflower

Synonym(s)

Commelina nudiflora Burm. F., C. longicaulis Jacq., C. pacifica Vahl, C. cespitosa Roxb., C. agraria Kunth

Geographical distribution

Asia: China (Taiwan).

South and Southeast Asia: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Rest of the world: Australia, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Fiji, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, New Guinea, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, United States (Hawaii), West Polynesia, and Zimbabwe.

Morphology

A creeping or ascending annual or perennial herb up to 100—cm—long.

Stem: somewhat fleshy, hairless or nearly so, and rooting at nodes.

Leaf: ovate to lanceolate up to 10—cm—long, sheaths clasping in the stem.

Inflorescence: a few flowered cyme inside a leaf-like bract; spathe 10—35—mm—long; flower has three blue petals, two upper ones up to 8—mm—long, lower one 3—5—mm—long.

Biology and ecology

Grows well in moist places and in a wide range of conditions. Reproduces by seeds and by stolons. Cut stems can rapidly develop into new plants with roots developing from nodes. A single plant is capable of producing 1,600 seeds.

Agricultural importance

Common in annual crops and in plantation crops and reported in banana, papaya, pineapple, citrus, coffee, rice, sugar cane, and vegetable and legume crops. Because of its ability to grow well in a range of conditions and relative difficulty in control, it is a problem weed in many tropical countries and to some extent in temperate countries.

Alternate host of a rice disease pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani, which causes sheath blight, and also of some rust fungi.

Management

Cultural control: can be removed by hand weeding or tillage though broken stems will rapidly regenerate in moist soil.

Chemical control: reported to be controlled by preemergence application of butachlor and by propanil, 2,4-D, and MCPA as postemergence treatments in rice.

Selected references

Galinato MI, Moody K, Piggin CM. 1999. Upland rice weeds of south and southeast Asia. Manila (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute. 156 p.

Holm L, Plucknett DL, Pancho JV, Herberger JP. 1977. The world's worst weeds: distribution and biology. Honolulu, Hawaii (USA): University Press of Hawaii. 609 p.

Holm L, Pancho JV, Herberger JP, Plucknett DL. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds. New York (USA): John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 391 p.

Moody K. 1989. Weeds reported in South and Southeast Asia. Manila (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute. 442 p.

Pancho JV, Obien SR. 1995. Manual of ricefield weeds in the Philippines. Muñoz, Nueva Ecija (Philippines): Philippine Rice Research Institute. 543 p.

Contributors

JLA Catindig, RT Lubigan, and DE Johnson