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Weed Identification

Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Science Virginia Cooperative Extension

climbing dayflower

Family

Commelinaceae

Scientific Name

Commelina diffusa
Weed photograph 1
Weed photograph 2
Weed photograph 3
Weed photograph 4
Weed photograph 5
Weed photograph 6

Other Common Names:

spreading dayflower

Habit

Spreading dayflower is a creeping annual herb that can be found in forest, floodplain, mesics, wetland, marsh, and culturally developed land. Plants are more common in turfgrass that is sandy. Seeds germinate in spring and plants grow and bloom until frost. Blooms typically last one day, hence the name dayflower. Plants reproduce by seed and vegetative stolons, which root at the nodes.

Leaves

Leaves are bright green, alternately arranged, hairless except on the sheath, and have parallel veins. Leaves are lance shaped 2.5 to 8 cm long and 0.4 to 1.5 cm wide with margins that curve upward giving the leaf somewhat of a cupped shape. Leaves and stems are shiny and typically lack hairs.

Identifying Characteristics

Creeping herb produces short erect branches with shiny lanced-shaped leaves. Flowers are blue, showy, and have two larger petals and one smaller petal. All three petals are typically blue in spreading dayflower but the smaller flower is typically white in Asiatic dayflower, a related species. Nodes are swollen and will often root when in contact with the soil.

Flower Seed Head

Flowers are blue or rarely white born in a leaf-like enclosure that opens along the margins. They are about the size of a dime. Flowers have three blue petals. Plants are called dayflower because the flowers typically last only one day after opening.

Seed Fruit

Fruit is a green to yellow-green capsule with 2 to 3 compartments that split along a seam. Brown to black seeds are pitted with numerous depressions and 2 to 4 mm long.

Where Found

Spreading dayflower originated from Asia. Today, it can commonly be found in the southeast and south central US and in tropical Asia extending eastward into Polynesia, including Hawaii.

Growth Habit

prostrate and nonwoody

Thorns or Spines

not present

Approximate Flower Diameter

Varies: 
pencil, 
dime

Dominant Flower Color

blue

Flower Symmetry

not symmetrical

Leaf Hairs

Varies: 
has hairs, 
no hairs

Leaf Shape

lance

Leaf Arrangement

alternate

Leaf Margin

entire

Leaf Structure

simple

Leaf Stalk

none

Stem Hairs

no hairs

Stem Cross Section

round or oval

Milky Sap

not present

Root Structure

fibrous

Life Cycle

summer annual

Ochrea

not present

Plant Type

Herb