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Commelina tuberosa; photograph (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-29

Commelina tuberosa L.

Blue Spiderwort; Tuberous Dayflower; Commelina

Commelinaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +10

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Commelina tuberosa, photograph (c) Lucas Carbone, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina tuberosa, photograph (c) Lucas Carbone, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina tuberosa, photograph (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina tuberosa, photograph (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina tuberosa, photograph (c) Matias Baranzelli, some rights reserved (CC BY)Commelina tuberosa, photograph (c) Matias Baranzelli, some rights reserved (CC BY) 57 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.8°C
Record low -2.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
986mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–46DLI
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 June 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 tuberosa is an herbaceous perennial plant in the dayflower family which is native to Mexico but grown worldwide as an ornamental plant. It is characterized by its purple-splotched spathes with free margins, its bright blue petals of equal size, its tuberous roots, and its four to ten flowered lower cymes. In the wild, it is encountered in moist fields, open forests, or pine-oak forests. The species is sometimes considered to include the species Commelina coelestis, Commelina dianthifolia, and Commelina elliptica, such as in the Flora Mesoamericana. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Commelina tuberosa", 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 (733 mm of 961 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.9 °C against a yearly mean of 15.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

961 mm in the median year at the habitat, 733 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 210 mm, driest month December at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 604 mm to 1,673 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 986 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 961 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 46 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.8 °C, the absolute minimum -2.2 °C, 40 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 1.8 °C to 12.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.4 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.8 °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: 49 to 65% 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 -321 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 tuberosa through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 5.8 °C; 961 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost31.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-2.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–46RH 49–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 721 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 °C19 / 15–2421 / 16–2623 / 18–2824 / 20–3024 / 20–3023 / 18–2821 / 17–2621 / 17–2621 / 17–2520 / 17–2520 / 16–2519 / 15–24
Night °C6 / 2–127 / 3–128 / 4–1310 / 6–1511 / 7–1612 / 8–1711 / 7–1712 / 8–1711 / 8–1710 / 7–158 / 4–147 / 3–12
Rain mm20 / 9–5615 / 10–4112 / 5–3925 / 5–5556 / 18–111163 / 76–299210 / 98–324195 / 87–314165 / 88–30871 / 42–15219 / 10–6910 / 6–56
DLI32 / 27–3538 / 33–3944 / 37–4546 / 40–4944 / 40–4938 / 32–4337 / 32–4036 / 32–4033 / 30–3633 / 30–3632 / 29–3530 / 26–33
RH %53 / 49–6251 / 47–6149 / 44–6049 / 43–6154 / 47–6262 / 55–6764 / 59–6964 / 59–6965 / 60–7062 / 55–6757 / 50–6454 / 49–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 721 grid cells holding the 1126 in-range records, 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 1405:1615 (19.725, -99.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.6 °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 721 distinct grid cells holding 1126 of the 1126 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1405:1615 (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 -321 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2306 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina Northwest · introduced: Germany, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, East Himalaya, India, West Himalaya · 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 marker19.343, -99.221 · in the densest population, 649 records (41% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or tuberous geophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1599 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1126 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 982 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 31 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 473 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 1599 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 tuberosa, photograph 1did not loadCommelina tuberosa, photograph 2did not loadCommelina tuberosa, photograph 3did not loadCommelina tuberosa, photograph 4did not loadCommelina tuberosa, photograph 5did not loadCommelina tuberosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Lucas Carbone, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Matias Baranzelli, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Baccharis heterophylla Baccharis heterophylla Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Erick Vélez SánchezHeterotheca inuloides Heterotheca inuloides False arnica Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffDahlia pinnata Dahlia pinnata Pinnate dahlia Photo: CC BY, biogeekPassiflora exsudans Passiflora exsudans Passifloraceae Photo: CC BY, Peter Quakenbush Sagittaria macrophylla Alismataceae Begonia gracilis Begonia gracilis Hollyhock Begonia Photo: CC BY, fern Wildtruth

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 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 all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Allosperma tuberosa; Commelina acuminata; Commelina alpestris; Commelina cayennensis var. pubescens; Commelina clandestina and 24 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Commelina fasciculata: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Commelinaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +9
Wild records
1599 in range · 982 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; 42 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (19 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 15 at a herbarium, 8 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 -321 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 106 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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