Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Commelina diffusa; photograph (c) Bruno - Yolande Zanette, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Bruno - Yolande Zanette, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-13

Commelina diffusa Burm.f.

Climbing dayflower; Creeping spiderwort; Creeping day flower; Spreading dayflower

Commelinaceae · Cape Verde, Benin +80

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Commelina diffusa, photograph (c) Nathan Aaron, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina diffusa, photograph (c) Nathan Aaron, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina diffusa, photograph (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina diffusa, photograph (c) Bruno - Yolande Zanette, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina diffusa, photograph (c) Bruno - Yolande Zanette, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina diffusa, photograph (c) xanderferret, some rights reserved (CC BY) 80 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
9.2°C
Record low 3.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,241mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–34DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  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 April to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Commelina diffusa, sometimes known as the climbing dayflower or spreading dayflower, is an herbaceous plant in the dayflower family. Its native distribution is Paleotropical, including tropical and southern Africa, Yemen, the Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia, southern China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands. It has been introduced throughout the tropical and subtropical Americas, where it is now found from the eastern and midwestern United States to northern Argentina. It has been introduced to the southeastern United States where it is most common in wet disturbed soils. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Commelina diffusa", 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 (1,586 mm of 2,089 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.7 °C against a yearly mean of 23.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

2,089 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,586 mm of it April to September. Wettest month August at 313 mm, driest month January at 39 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,092 mm to 4,059 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,241 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,089 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: 25 to 34 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 9.2 °C, the absolute minimum 3.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.9 °C to 23.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.7 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.2 °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: 62 to 67% 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 -171 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 diffusa through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 14.4 °C; 2,089 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°50°39.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 25–34RH 62–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 218 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 °C22 / 17–3223 / 17–3325 / 20–3426 / 22–3527 / 24–3328 / 25–3129 / 24–3129 / 25–3028 / 25–3027 / 23–3025 / 21–3123 / 18–31
Night °C14 / 11–2415 / 12–2417 / 14–2520 / 16–2622 / 17–2624 / 17–2624 / 18–2624 / 18–2623 / 17–2521 / 17–2419 / 14–2415 / 12–24
Rain mm39 / 7–25565 / 8–304101 / 20–259166 / 55–269250 / 112–374309 / 101–528271 / 92–516313 / 70–498277 / 112–552165 / 44–47188 / 17–38745 / 9–301
DLI26 / 14–3728 / 17–4033 / 23–4234 / 28–4132 / 30–3832 / 26–3534 / 25–3932 / 25–3630 / 27–3529 / 23–3626 / 17–3425 / 14–36
RH %62 / 52–7063 / 52–7063 / 51–7065 / 55–7066 / 59–7167 / 61–7267 / 63–7167 / 63–7167 / 63–7065 / 59–7063 / 54–7062 / 52–69

Records on both sides of the equator: the 53 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 218 cells that remain: the 151 at least 10° north and the 67 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 218 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (257 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 1414:5590 (19.275, 99.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.1 °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 218 distinct grid cells holding 257 of the 344 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (151 cells poleward of 10° north, 53 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 1414:5590 (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 19.50_99.375, lapse-corrected -171 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 571 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, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Fiji, Niue, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is. · introduced: Canary Is., Madeira, Ascension, St.Helena, Chagos Archipelago, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Cook Is., Easter Is., Society Is., Caroline Is., Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, 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 marker24.75, 121.766 · in the densest population, 107 records (19% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 550 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 257 of them in the land cells it reads, of 344 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 292 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 12605 km away. 1207 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 206 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 550 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 diffusa, photograph 1did not loadCommelina diffusa, photograph 2did not loadCommelina diffusa, photograph 3did not loadCommelina diffusa, photograph 4did not loadCommelina diffusa, photograph 5did not loadCommelina diffusa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Nathan Aaron, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Bruno - Yolande Zanette, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) xanderferret, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Cyperus distans Cyperus distans Piedmont flatsedge Photo: CC BY, Jerome KoAbelmoschus moschatus Abelmoschus moschatus Musk okra Photo: CC0, author not statedTorenia crustacea Torenia crustacea Brittle False Pimpernel Photo: CC BY, Tony van KampenPollia secundiflora Pollia secundiflora Three-stamen pollia Photo: CC0, author not statedMelanolepis multiglandulosa Melanolepis multiglandulosa Alim Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxzPhyllanthus vitis-idaea Phyllanthus vitis-idaea Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Lalithamba from India

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 benghalensis Commelina benghalensis Day flower Photo: CC BY, AparnaCommelina 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 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 diffusa var. diffusa; Commelina nudiflora; Commelina nudiflora var. sellowiana; Commelina sauciflora. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Commelina communis Dalz & Gibs. and Commelina communis Vell. is an older name of this species, not Commelina communis, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Commelinaceae
Described by
Burm.f.
Native to
Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina +79
Wild records
550 in range · 292 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; 49 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (40 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a herbarium, 5 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 19.50_99.375, lapse-corrected -171 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 222 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…