''Commelina maculata'' is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family found in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountai ...

, and southern China. It is most often encountered along forest margins, in grasslands, along roadsides, or in moist ditches. The species is characterized by its short-stalked

spathe In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or o ...

s with fused margins that usually occur in clusters of two or three, bearing flowers that barely stick out from the mouth of the spathe. The species is very similar to '' Commelina paludosa'', and further study is needed to recognize the boundary between the two. The two are typically differentiated on the basis of ''C. paludosa'' having larger and more numerous spathes that occur in clusters of four to ten, forming a sort of head. ''C. paludosa'' is also reported to have larger leaves, a more erect habit, less branching, and thicker stems. On the other hand, ''C. maculata'' is supposed to have heads of only two to three spathes, low-growing stems, numerous branches, slender stems that root at the nodes, and leaves less than ten cm long by two and a half cm wide.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5152282 maculata Flora of Asia Plants described in 1851