Commelinales & Zingiberales Week: Commelinaceae, Commelina forsskalii Vahl. from Delhi (needs confirmation)

[Gurcharan Singh]

Commelinales & Zingiberales Week: Commelinaceae, Commelina forsskalii Vahl.  Enum. Pl. 2: 172 1805.

Syn: C. falcata Hassk.

The plant is common in the Old Delhi Ridge forest in rainy season. The plant is reported and looks like C. forsskalii Vahl but I am not able to ignore the distinct auricles at the base of leaf sheath, a character distinctive of C. erecta (according to Flora of North America) and absent in C. forsskalii. The experts are requested to examine this aspect critically.

The spellings of this binomial is also worth consideration. The species is often reported in Indian publications as C. forskalaei, whereas GRIN, Flora North America take up C. forskaolii Vahl.  

--
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/

[tanay bose]

The last photo is awesome !!

Tanay

--

Tanay Bose

Research Assistant & Teaching Assistant.
Department of Botany.
University of British Columbia .
3529-6270 University Blvd.
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 (Canada)
Phone: 778-323-4036 (Mobile)

           604-822-2019 (Lab)

           604-822-6089  (Fax)

ta...@interchange.ubc.ca

Webpages: 

http://www.botany.ubc.ca/people/mberbee.html

http://www.botany.ubc.ca/people/gradstud.html

https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/

[Pardeshi S.]

This is
Commelina paleata Hassk. in Miq. Pl. Jungh. 2: 139, 1852; Hook.f., Fl.
Brit. India 6: 371, 1982; Cooke, Fl. Pres. Bombay 3: 294, 1958
(Repr.); Sharma et al, Fl. Mah. St. Monocot. 159, 1996; Pradhan et al,
Fl. SGNP. 614, 2005.
Common along railway tracks in Mumbai

Regards
Satish Pardeshi

On Feb 7, 7:25 am, tanay bose <tanaybos...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The last photo is awesome !!
> Tanay
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 6:22 PM, Gurcharan Singh <singh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Commelinales & Zingiberales Week: Commelinaceae, Commelina forsskalii
> > Vahl.  Enum. Pl. 2: 172 1805.
> > Syn: C. falcata Hassk.
>
> > The plant is common in the Old Delhi Ridge forest in rainy season. The
> > plant is reported and looks like C. forsskalii Vahl but I am not able to
> > ignore the distinct auricles at the base of leaf sheath, a character
> > distinctive of C. erecta (according to Flora of North America) and absent in
> > C. forsskalii. The experts are requested to examine this aspect critically.
>
> > The spellings of this binomial is also worth consideration. The species is
> > often reported in Indian publications as C. forskalaei, whereas GRIN, Flora
> > North America take up C. forskaolii Vahl.
>
> > --
> > Dr. Gurcharan Singh
> > Retired  Associate Professor
> > SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
> > Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
> > Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
> >http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/
>
> --

> *Tanay Bose*

> Research Assistant & Teaching Assistant.
> Department of Botany.
> University of British Columbia .
> 3529-6270 University Blvd.
> Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 (Canada)
> Phone: 778-323-4036 (Mobile)
>            604-822-2019 (Lab)
>            604-822-6089  (Fax)
> ta...@interchange.ubc.ca

> *Webpages:*http://www.botany.ubc.ca/people/mberbee.htmlhttp://www.botany.ubc.ca/people/gradstud.htmlhttps://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/

[Gurcharan Singh]

I would be grateful if any member has resources to upload the key to the Indian species of Commelina.

I wonder whether C. paleata has sheathing leaf base with distinct hairy auricles.

-- 
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ 

[A.Sinha]

 Exemplary images...... they take the eye over the relevant details and beautiful  features.  
Gurcharan-ji, thanks..   pic d is the capsule , and the  in pic e , the root is having nodules ?

regards
A.Sinha.

On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 12:45 PM, Pardeshi S. <satishp...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Mayur Nandikar]

Hello Nice caption

but I think this is the only member (with cleistogamous flowers)apart from  C. benghalensis i. e

Commelina forskalaei Vahl Enum. Pl. [Vahl] ii. 172. 1805; Clarke In DC. Mon. Phan. 3;168.1881.

Type: Arabia forsskal (C, Holotype)

Procumbent, sparsely branched annual herb. Root fibrous. Basal nodes with sub-terranian cleistogamous flowers.

C. forskalaei resembles C. benghalensis in having sub-terranian cleistogamous flowers, undulate leaf margin and cucullate spatathe. But differes from C. benghalensis in its elliptic leaves absence of red rufus hairs on the sheath and smooth seeds with ridges and depressions in the testa as against ovate undulate leaves, red rufus hairs in the sheath and reticulate seeds in C. benghalensis 

Distribution: C. forskalaei distributed from sea level to medium altitudes. It is found in wayside, grassy places near agricultural fields and prefers fully exposed habitats 

--
Mr. Mayur D. Nandikar,
Research Student,
Department of Botany,
Shivaji University,
Kolhapur.

[Gurcharan Singh]

Mayur ji

What about the spellings?

forsskalii (accepted according to Kew the Plant List)  or forskaolii (accepted according to GRIN), or forskalaei (according to IPNI)

-- 
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ 

[Mayur Nandikar]

Here is the description by Vahl.

Vahl's one should be right according to mine

[Pankaj Kumar]

Great job.....now I am loving this hardcore taxonomic approach of
people in the group more. We certainly need both sides to make our
identification and nomenclature correct.
Thanks.
Pankaj

--
***********************************************
"TAXONOMISTS GETTING EXTINCT AND SPECIES DATA DEFICIENT !!"

Pankaj Kumar Ph.D. (Orchidaceae)
Research Associate
Greater Kailash Sacred Landscape Project
Department of Habitat Ecology
Wildlife Institute of India
Post Box # 18
Dehradun - 248001, India