PlantFiles: False Day Flower
Commelinantia anomala

This is only my second year in my home, so my rating may change, as well. But for now, I really enjoy these flowers! They grow where other things won't and they make mornings beautiful. I love the way they sprawl out and how they find their way up through the bushes and briars that line my gravel road.

It's also invasive and very hard to eradicate.

False Day Flower, Commelinantia anomala, is Endemic to Texas.

Sorry, my description was for the asiatic species

San Antonio, Tx.
The false dayflower (also known as widowstears) which is native to Texas and Mexico differs from dayflowers (Commelinas) in several ways. Its leaves are a lighter color of green and are more delicate looking. It grows in a more upright fashion and the blooms are a much lighter color. When I first had it spring up in my yard, I thought it was a new type of dayflower ... that a dayflower had somehow crossed with something else. I called it my anemic dayflower because compared to the dayflowers that take over my yard, this plant's colors are very subdued and more delicate looking. It is easily pulled up unlike the dayflowers which I have been attempting to kill for many, many years. I am permitting the false dayflower to grow where it comes up in most instances. I love the bright blue blooms on the Commelinas, but they are extremely invasive, difficult to remove once the roots are established and grow over other plants. The false dayflower is a somewhat "tamer" plant but does self-seed. I pull up most of them and leave a few in areas where they do not overwhelm my other plants.

Update: 6/12/07 - After a really cool and wet spring, the false dayflowers grew to about twice the size that they usually do and many more of the plants came up from seed from last year. I also saw a lot more mature seeds on the plants than I have in the past. So next year, I may change my rating.