After Dutch botanists Jan (1629-1692) and his nephew Caspar (1667-1731) Commelijn, known to Linnaeus and Charles Plumier, a French Franciscan monk, botanist and traveler who apparently named this flower. Jan, or Johan, Commelijn was a doctor and the director of botany at the Hortus Medicus (Medical Garden) in Amsterdam, who worked with many Asian tropical plants sent back to Holland. Linnaeus allegedly decided to commemorate the Commelins because the dayflower has two large petals (for Jan and Caspar) and a third small petal (for another Commelijn who died young before he could accomplish anything in botany), but this may well be an apocryphal though convenient explanation
Slender dayflower is native to the Americas, Africa, and western Asia. The genus, Commelina,
is an in-joke created by Linnaeus himself, commemorating three botanist brothers, the Commelyns.
Two of the brothers, akin to the dayflowers' two prominent petals, published papers and went on to
successful careers, while the third amounted to nothing, like the inconsequential white petal on the
dayflower.
Identification: These plants tend to lie prostrate,
growing along the ground up to 3' (91 cm) unless they have other plants to crawl over. The pair of opposing
blue petals, looking a bit like Mickey Mouse ears, are the most obvious identifying feature.
There is a third, smaller petal below.
Flowers are about ¾" (1.9 cm) across.
