Benghal dayflower facts for kids
Commelina benghalensis, also known as the Benghal dayflower, tropical spiderwort, or wandering Jew, is a type of plant that grows year after year. It comes from warm, tropical areas of Asia and Africa. This plant has spread to many other parts of the world, including North and South America and the Caribbean islands. It can bloom for a long time, especially in warmer climates, sometimes all year round. You often find it growing in places where the soil has been disturbed, like gardens or fields.
In many places, both where it naturally grows and where it has been introduced, the Benghal dayflower is often seen as a weed. This means it can grow where people don't want it, sometimes causing problems for farmers. For example, in the United States, it's on a special list of plants that can harm crops. In Asia, it can be a moderate weed in rice fields. In its home regions of Africa and Asia, it can be a serious weed for many different crops, from tea and coffee to peanuts. It can also carry tiny worms called nematodes and plant viruses that harm crops.
People in China use this plant as a traditional medicine. They believe it can help with swelling, fevers, and act as a diuretic (helping the body get rid of extra water). In Pakistan, it's used to help with skin swelling, leprosy, and as a laxative.
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Where It Grows and Lives
The Benghal dayflower is found across a very wide area. It is native to tropical and subtropical parts of Asia and Africa. In China, it often grows in wet places, from sea level up to high mountains. You can find it in many Chinese provinces, from the northeast to the south. It also grows in Taiwan and the southern parts of Japan. Even though its roots can be eaten, it's not grown on purpose in Ethiopia; it just grows there as a weed.
This plant has also spread far beyond its original home. It now grows in warm parts of North and South America, including the southeastern United States, California, and Hawaii. It's also found in many Caribbean islands like Cuba and Jamaica. In the southeastern U.S., it was first collected in the 1920s and has been spreading since. It was added to a list of harmful weeds in 1983. By 2003, it was a big problem for cotton farms in Georgia because many common weed killers didn't work on it. It arrived in California in the 1980s. This plant likes disturbed soil, like in yards, lawns, and cultivated fields, especially in cotton farms and orange groves.
How It Looks and Grows
In some places, like Jammu, India, this plant grows for part of the year, from May to December, and flowers from June to October. But closer to the equator, like in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, it grows all year round and flowers continuously.
The Benghal dayflower has three main types of branches. Some grow upwards into the air. Others grow sideways, close to the ground. And some branches even grow underground. The underground branches do not have leaves.
How It Reproduces
The Benghal dayflower has many different ways to make new plants. It produces three kinds of flowers. Some flowers are only male. Others have both male and female parts and open up normally (chasmogamous). A third type also has both male and female parts but stays closed (cleistogamous). All three types can grow on the branches that are in the air. However, only the open, hermaphrodite flowers grow on the sideways branches. Only the closed flowers grow on the underground branches. Sometimes, some plants might even have female-only flowers on their aerial branches. The developing flowers are covered in sticky, leaf-like structures.
The flowers are not perfectly round; they have a specific shape. Their petals are blue. Each flower has six stamens, which are the male parts, but only three of them can produce pollen. One of these fertile stamens is longer and yellow, while the other two are shorter and grey. The pollen grains are yellowish and shaped like capsules.
The female part of the flower has three joined sections called carpels. Flowers that grow in the air or sideways on the ground have five tiny ovules (which become seeds) inside their ovary. Flowers that grow underground only have three ovules.
The seeds are oval-shaped, about 2 millimeters long and 1.5 millimeters wide. There are four types of seeds: large and small seeds from aerial flowers, and large and small seeds from underground flowers. Plants that grow from large underground seeds grow the fastest in their first few weeks. This might give them an advantage in competing with other plants. Most other types of seeds have a resting period before they sprout. This helps the plant survive tough times, like droughts, or spread to new areas. One study found that most seeds (75-77%) were small aerial seeds, and only a small number (2-4%) were underground seeds.
Uses of the Plant
In China, the Benghal dayflower is used in traditional medicine. People believe it helps with swelling and fevers, and acts as a diuretic. In Pakistan, it is used as food for animals and is also eaten by people as a vegetable. It's also used there for medicine, believed to help with skin inflammation and leprosy, and to act as a laxative. People in Nepal eat the young leaves as a vegetable. They also use a paste made from the plant to treat burns and drink juice from the roots for indigestion. In India, it has been recorded as a "famine food," meaning people ate it when other food was scarce. In Southeast Asia and Africa, it is used as animal feed and also as a poultice (a soft, moist mass applied to the body for healing).
Images for kids
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Commelina benghalensis in Hyderabad, India.
