Prostrate, mat forming herb. Leaves ovate-acute to more or less cordate. Flower cymes enclosed by sheathing leaves; spring. Sepals and petals more or less colourless. Stamens mostly inserted.
Tropical America
Cultivated as an indoor or shade house plant, often as a hanging basket feature.
C. fragrans (Lindl.) Woodson from southern Mexico is a stout rosette herb with long stolons. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate, acute, to 30 cm. Inflorescence branched, cymes clustered, sessile. Flowers sessile; winter-spring. Sepals chaffy. Petals white. Stamens exserted. Sometimes grown in gardens, naturalised in warmer parts of eastern Australia.
C. navicularis (Ortgies) D.R. Hunt from eastern and north-eastern Mexico is a tufted or spreading herb. Leaves lanceolate to ovate, succulent, green above purplish below, 2-3 cm. Flowers mauve to bright magenta; summer to autumn. Cultivated as an indoor or shade house plant, often as a hanging basket feature.
Source: (2005). Commelinaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
