Art by Alice Tangerini: Commelina stefaniniana

From Plant Press, Vol. 1, No. 4, July 1998.

Commelina stefaniniana Chiov.

This illustration of Commelina stefaniniana Chiov., a member of the Commelinaceae, was published in the Flora of Somalia, Vol. 4 in 1995 and in the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea, Vol. 6 in 1997. The plant was collected by Bob Faden in Mukayle, Somalia in 1988 when he accompanied Canadian plant ecologist Peter Kuchar in the field. The species is restricted to the arid Somalia-Masai northeastern African regional center of endemism, where it occurs in Somalia, eastern and southern Ethiopia, and northern Kenya. It has been cultivated in the Botany Department Research Greenhouses ever since. The large, blue flowers are slightly fragrant, a feature otherwise unknown in the genus.