Commelina eckloniana Kunth

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Photo: Barbara Turpin
c. 19.2 km W of Bela Vista along road 202, c. 2.4 km S of turn-off on to sand track, Matutuine district.

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Description:	Erect or decumbent perennial or annual herb with thin and fibrous roots or with stalked fusiform tubers at the base. Stems often rooting at the nodes. Leaves narrowly lanceolate to ovate-elliptic, 2-15 cm long, sessile or narrowing into a petiole, sheathing at the base finely velvety on both surfaces; margins scabrid towards the apex. Spathes solitary or loosely clustered, velvety on the surfaces; margins fused at the base for 3-9 mm, velvety along the fused margins only. Flowers bisexual and male. Sepala free or nearly so. Petals pale blue or sky blue, rarely white, lower petal much reduced or almost the same size as lateral petals. Staminodes 3, sometimes reduced to tiny knobs.
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Derivation of specific name:	eckloniana: after Christian Friedrich Ecklon (1795-1868), a Danish pharmacist, botanist and plant collector, who was one of the early and most productive botanical explorers in South Africa.
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Worldwide distribution:	The species is widespread in Africa but the spread of subsp. eckloniana is uncertain. It may be that this subsp. is only known from South Africa and Southern Mozambique and that other subtaxa occur elsewhere in our region but which is as yet unclear.
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Spot characters:	Display spot characters for this species
Literature:	Chapano, C. & Mugarisanwa, N.H. (2003). Plants of the Matobo District National Herbarium and Botanic Garden, Zimbabwe Page 10. Faden, R. (2012). Commelinaceae Flora of Tropical East Africa Page 182. not subsp. eckloniana Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 86. Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 117. Timberlake, J.R. & Childes, S.L. (2004). Biodiversity of the Four Corners Area: Technical Reviews Volume Two (Chapter 5-15) Appendix 5-1: Plant Checklist Occasional Publications in Biodiversity 15 Page 181.

Other sources of information about Commelina eckloniana:

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Flora of Botswana: Commelina eckloniana
Flora of Caprivi: Commelina eckloniana
Flora of Malawi: Commelina eckloniana
Flora of Mozambique: Commelina eckloniana
Flora of Zambia: Commelina eckloniana
Flora of Zimbabwe: Commelina eckloniana

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Commelina eckloniana
African Plant Database: Commelina eckloniana
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Commelina eckloniana
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Commelina eckloniana
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Commelina eckloniana
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Commelina eckloniana
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Commelina eckloniana
JSTOR Plant Science: Commelina eckloniana
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Commelina eckloniana
Plants of the World Online: Commelina eckloniana
Tropicos: Commelina eckloniana
Wikipedia: Commelina eckloniana