Family: Commelinaceae
Group: Monocot
Substrate:
Terrestrial
Habit:
Herb
Perennation:
Perennial
Native Range: Scattered in the southeastern United States (Florida, Georgia), the West Indies, southern Mexico, Central America and South America.
Map of select IRC data for peninsular Florida
Florida Natural Areas Inventory State Status:
Not listed
IRC SOUTH FLORIDA Status:
Critically Imperiled
SOUTH FLORIDA Occurrence:
Assumed to be Present
SOUTH FLORIDA Native Status:
Native
South Florida History and Distribution: Ranked as presumed extirpated in Rare Plants of South Florida (
Gann et al. 2002, pp 65-66), based on several scattered specimens collected between 1895 and 1925. Rediscovered in 2002 at Crystal Lake Sand Pine Scrub Natural Area in Broward County by Patricia L. Howell (
USF 550), and observed there through 2017 by Jimmy Lange and others, but not recently seen and possibly extirpated there (J. Lange, email comm. 2022). Also collected in 2013 by David and Holly Williams (
3889 USF) along a roadside in Charlotte County. We are currently treating this as assumed present and critically imperiled in South Florida.
SOUTH FLORIDA Cultivated Status:
Not Cultivated
Comments: This is very similar to the introduced
Callisia repens, but it has flowers in cymes on lateral branches, rather than sessile or sub-sessile flowers in dense clusters in the upper leaf axils. For images, click on the Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants link below.
