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Commelina benghalensis; photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-23

Commelina benghalensis L.

Day flower; Benghal dayflower; Jio; Wandering Jew

Commelinaceae · Cape Verde, Benin +78

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Commelina benghalensis, photograph (c) Aparna, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina benghalensis, photograph (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Commelina benghalensis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCommelina benghalensis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCommelina benghalensis, photograph (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina benghalensis, photograph (c) Félix Emanuel, some rights reserved (CC BY) 67 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.1°C
Record low 7.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Mar and Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,203mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Commelina benghalensis, commonly known as the Benghal dayflower, tropical spiderwort, or wandering Jew, kanshira in Bengali, is a perennial herb native to tropical Asia and Africa. It has been widely introduced to areas outside its native range, including to the neotropics, Hawaii, the West Indies and to both coasts of North America. It has a long flowering period, from spring to fall in subtropical areas, and throughout the year closer to the equator. It is often associated with disturbed soils.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Commelina benghalensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Commelina

Commelina is a genus of approximately 208 species commonly called dayflowers due to the short lives of their flowers, and less often known as widow's tears. It is by far the largest genus of its family, Commelinaceae. The Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus of the 18th century named the genus after the two Dutch botanists Jan Commelijn and his nephew Caspar, each representing one of the showy petals of Commelina communis.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Commelina", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (806 mm of 1,094 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.5 °C against a yearly mean of 25.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,094 mm in the median year at the habitat, 806 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 191 mm, driest month January at 12 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 726 mm to 2,370 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,203 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,094 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.1 °C, the absolute minimum 7.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 3.2 °C to 23.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.9 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -36 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Commelina benghalensis through the yearWarmest months March and April, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.8 °C; 1,094 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°36.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER7.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–40RH 54–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 471 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 10–3330 / 10–3632 / 14–3832 / 21–3931 / 24–3930 / 25–3629 / 26–3229 / 26–3129 / 26–3229 / 22–3329 / 17–3428 / 12–34
Night °C17 / 3–2418 / 4–2421 / 8–2524 / 12–2624 / 15–2724 / 18–2723 / 20–2623 / 19–2623 / 17–2522 / 14–2420 / 10–2417 / 6–24
Rain mm12 / 0–9421 / 1–11138 / 2–16171 / 5–192117 / 19–233151 / 50–311179 / 47–403191 / 46–359168 / 55–30594 / 28–23838 / 3–19114 / 0–135
DLI33 / 18–3937 / 23–4340 / 28–4440 / 32–4637 / 31–4633 / 28–3932 / 25–3630 / 24–3631 / 27–3832 / 24–3931 / 19–3931 / 17–37
RH %56 / 35–6554 / 33–6556 / 37–6559 / 42–6661 / 46–6763 / 53–6865 / 59–6966 / 59–6964 / 57–6961 / 51–6759 / 43–6657 / 37–65

Records on both sides of the equator: the 122 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 471 cells that remain: the 314 at least 10° north and the 157 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 471 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (559 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1655:3864 (7.225, 13.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 471 distinct grid cells holding 559 of the 708 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (314 cells poleward of 10° north, 122 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1655:3864 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_13.125, lapse-corrected -36 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 998 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCape Verde, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines · introduced: Egypt, Canary Is., Madeira, Chagos Archipelago, Transcaucasus, Christmas I., New South Wales, Queensland, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Hawaii, California, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Honduras, Cuba, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., French Guiana, Bolivia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Paraguay · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker6.65, 2.15 · in the densest population, 109 records (10% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1040 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 559 of them in the land cells it reads, of 708 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 613 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 537 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 332 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1040 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Commelina benghalensis, photograph 1did not loadCommelina benghalensis, photograph 2did not loadCommelina benghalensis, photograph 3did not loadCommelina benghalensis, photograph 4did not loadCommelina benghalensis, photograph 5did not loadCommelina benghalensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Aparna, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Félix Emanuel, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Crotalaria pallida Crotalaria pallida Smooth rattlebox Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-StolsDioscorea alata Dioscorea alata Water yam Photo: CC BY, chiuluanGloriosa superba Gloriosa superba Flame lily Photo: CC BY, Teja YantrapalliCleome gynandra Cleome gynandra Cleomaceae Photo: CC BY, Forest & Kim StarrSida acuta Sida acuta Common wireweed Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar ChimiralaBombax ceiba Bombax ceiba Red silk cottontree Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Commelina 15 in the reference

Commelina africana Commelina africana African Yellow Dayflower Photo: CC BY, Liezl van der MerweCommelina auriculata Commelina auriculata Commelinaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxzCommelina capitata Commelina capitata Commelinaceae Photo: CC BY, Jean Jacques GodonCommelina communis Commelina communis Asiatic dayflower Photo: CC BY, Nathan AaronCommelina cyanea Commelina cyanea Creeping Christian Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyCommelina dianthifolia Commelina dianthifolia Birdbill dayflower Photo: CC BY, CK2AZCommelina diffusa Commelina diffusa Climbing dayflower Photo: CC BY, Nathan AaronCommelina ensifolia Commelina ensifolia Commelinaceae Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffCommelina erecta Commelina erecta Erect dayflower Photo: CC BY, Catherine C. GalleyCommelina forskaolii Commelina forskaolii Rat's ear Photo: CC0, author not stated Commelina leiocarpa Smooth-fruited Dayflower Commelina obliqua Commelina obliqua Commelinaceae Photo: CC BY, Davidson Moreira all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Commelina acuminata; Commelina benghalensis f. variegata; Commelina benghalensis subsp. hirsuta; Commelina benghalensis var. benghalensis; Commelina benghalensis var. hirsuta and 21 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Commelinaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina +77
Wild records
1040 in range · 613 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 58 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (46 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 10 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_13.125, lapse-corrected -36 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 169 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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