''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial

monocotyledon Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks ...

ous

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the family

Commelinaceae Commelinaceae is a family of flowering plants. In less formal contexts, the group is referred to as the dayflower family or spiderwort family. It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with about 731 kn ...

. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed or spear-shaped antherodes (i.e. non-functional

anther The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

s). Also it is the only genus with staminodes (i.e. non-functional

stamens The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...

) opposite the petals. ''Murdannia'' are found in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

regions across the globe with extensions into warm

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

areas.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> Typically, ''Murdannia'' species are found in open areas in mesic soils. However, some are semi-

aquatic Aquatic means relating to water; living in or near water or taking place in water; does not include groundwater, as "aquatic" implies an environment where plants and animals live. Aquatic(s) may also refer to: * Aquatic animal, either vertebrate ...

, and a limited few are found in closed

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

situations. Three species are naturalized in the United States ('' Murdannia keisak, M. nudiflora'' and '' M. spirata'').Flora of North America v 22 p 190
The genus is named in honor of Murdan Ali, a plant collector who worked for

John Forbes Royle John Forbes Royle (10 May 1798 – 2 January 1858), British Botany, botanist and teacher of materia medica (pharmacology), was born in Kanpur (then Cawnpore) in India in 1798. He was in charge of the botanical garden at Saharanpur and played a r ...

and maintained the herbarium at

Saharanpur Saharanpur is a city and a Municipal corporation (India), municipal corporation in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is also the public administration, administrative headquarters of Saharanpur district. Saharanpur city's name was given after the Sain ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He was a

munshi During the Mughal Empire, ''Munshi'' () came to be used as a respected title for persons who achieved mastery over language and politics in the Indian subcontinent. Use in Bengal The surname "Munshi" ( Bengali: মুন্সি) is used by bot ...

who took a keen interest in natural history and under the training of Falconer, Royle and Edgeworth had become a proficient botanist who compiled a vernacular flora of northern India and the Himalayas which was however never published. ; Species * ''

Murdannia acutifolia ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' (Lauterb. & K.Schum.) Faden - New Guinea * ''

Murdannia allardii ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' (De Wild.) Brenan - Congo-Brazzaville, Zaïre * ''

Murdannia assamica ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' Nampy & Ancy - Assam * ''

Murdannia audreyae ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' Faden - Sri Lanka * ''

Murdannia axillaris ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' Brenan - Kenya, Zanzibar, Pemba * ''

Murdannia blumei ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' (Hassk.) Brenan - Indian Subcontinent, Java, Myanmar, Malaya * ''

Murdannia bracteata ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' (C.B.Clarke) J.K.Morton ex D.Y.Hong - southern China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam * ''

Murdannia brownii ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' Nandikar & Gurav - western India * ''

Murdannia burchellii ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' – Bolivia, Venezuela, and north, northeast, and west-central Brazil * ''

Murdannia citrina ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' D.Fang - Guangxi in China * ''

Murdannia clandestina ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' (Ridl.) Faden - Peninsular Malaysia * '' Murdannia clarkeana'' Brenan - Central African Republic, Chad, Kenya * '' Murdannia crocea'' (Griff.) Faden - India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Myanmar * '' Murdannia cryptantha'' Faden - New Guinea, Queensland, Northern Territory of Australia * '' Murdannia dimorpha'' (Dalzell) G.Brückn. - southern India * '' Murdannia dimorphoides'' Faden - Sri Lanka * '' Murdannia divergens'' (C.B.Clarke) G.Brückn. - southern China, Himalayas, Myanmar, Vietnam * '' Murdannia edulis'' (Stokes) Faden - southern China, Himalayas, Indochina, Java, Bali, Philippines, New Guinea * '' Murdannia esculenta'' (Wall. ex C.B.Clarke) R.S.Rao & Kammathy - India, Sri Lanka * '' Murdannia fadeniana'' Nampy & Joby - Kerala State in India * '' Murdannia fasciata'' (Warb. ex K.Schum. & Lauterb.) G.Brückn. - New Guinea * '' Murdannia gardneri'' (Seub.) G.Brückn. - Brazil * '' Murdannia gigantea'' (Vahl) G.Brückn. - Madagascar, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales * '' Murdannia glauca'' (Thwaites ex C.B.Clarke) G.Brückn. - India, Sri Lanka * '' Murdannia graminea'' (R.Br.) G.Brückn. - Vietnam, Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales, Western Australia * '' Murdannia hookeri'' (C.B.Clarke) G.Brückn. - Assam, southern China * '' Murdannia japonica'' (Thunb.) Faden - China, Japan, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Borneo * '' Murdannia juncoides'' (Wight) R.S.Rao & Kammathy - Kerala + Tamil Nadu in India * '' Murdannia kainantensis'' (Masam.) D.Y.Hong - southern China * '' Murdannia keisak'' (Hassk.) Hand.-Mazz. - Japan, Korea, Ryukyu Islands, Russia (Amur + Primorye), Taiwan, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal; naturalized in parts of United States * '' Murdannia lanceolata'' (Wight) Kammathy - India, Sri Lanka * '' Murdannia lanuginosa'' (Wall. ex C.B.Clarke) G.Brückn. - southern India * ''

Murdannia loriformis ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' (Hassk.) R.S.Rao & Kammathy - China, Taiwan, Tibet, Ryukyu Islands, Bonin Islands, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Java, Philippines, New Guinea * '' Murdannia macrocarpa'' D.Y.Hong - Yunnan, Guangdong, Cambodia * '' Murdannia medica'' (Lour.) D.Y.Hong - Yunnan, Guangdong, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam * ''

Murdannia nampyana ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' – India (Kerala) * '' Murdannia nudiflora'' (L.) Brenan - southern China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Western Australia, Micronesia; naturalized in Hawaii, southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, West Indies, northern South America, Sierra Leone, Congo-Brazzaville, Cook Islands * '' Murdannia paraguayensis'' (C.B.Clarke ex Chodat) G.Brückn. - Paraguay, Brazil * '' Murdannia pauciflora'' (G.Brückn.) G.Brückn. - southern India * ''

Murdannia saddlepeakensis ''Murdannia'' is a genus of annual or perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. The genus is one of the largest in the family. They are most easily distinguished from other genera in the family by their three-lobed ...

'' – Andaman Islands * '' Murdannia sahyadrica'' Ancy & Nampy - Maharashtra * '' Murdannia satheeshiana'' Joby, Nisha & Unni - southern India * '' Murdannia schomburgkiana'' (Kunth) G.Brückn. - Guyana, Brazil * '' Murdannia semifoliata'' (C.B.Clarke ex S.Moore) G.Brückn. - Brazil * '' Murdannia semiteres'' (Dalzell) Santapau - Zaire, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Iran, Yemen, India, Vietnam * ''

Murdannia sepalosa ''Murdannia sepalosa'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Commelinaceae. It is a tuberous perennial geophyte native to central and eastern Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, Zaire, Zambia, Mozambique, and Malawi Malaw ...

'' – Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zaïre * '' Murdannia simplex'' (Vahl) Brenan - sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Indian Subcontinent, southern China, Indochina, Queensland * '' Murdannia spectabilis'' (Kurz) Faden - southern China, Indochina, Philippines * ''

Murdannia spirata ''Murdannia spirata'', common name Asiatic dewflower, is a tropical plant species native to China, India, Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific. It is now also naturalized in Florida, first collected there from the wild in 1965. In Asia, ...

'' (L.) G.Brückn. - southern China, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Java, Philippines; naturalized in Florida + Samoa * '' Murdannia stenothyrsa'' (Diels) Hand.-Mazz. - Sichuan, Yunnan * '' Murdannia striatipetala'' Faden - Sri Lanka * '' Murdannia stricta'' Brenan - Zaire, Rwanda * '' Murdannia tenuissima'' (A.Chev.) Brenan - tropical Africa * '' Murdannia triquetra'' (Wall. ex C.B.Clarke) G.Brückn. - southern China, Indochina, Himalayas * '' Murdannia ugemugei'' R.B.Kamble, Somkuwar & Nandikar - India * '' Murdannia undulata'' D.Y.Hong - Yunnan * '' Murdannia vaginata'' (L.) G.Brückn. - southern China, Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Java, Philippines, Queensland, Northern Territory * '' Murdannia versicolor'' (Dalzell) G.Brückn. - India, Vietnam, Philippines * '' Murdannia yunnanensis'' D.Y.Hong - Yunnan * '' Murdannia zeylanica'' (C.B.Clarke) G.Brückn. - India, Sri Lanka

References

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2468501 Commelinaceae Commelinaceae genera