Greek di – double, choris – separate and andros – a man; referring to the two different stamen types.
Erect perennials, rootstock shortly rhizomatous. Leaves spirally arranged or 2-ranked, elliptic-lanceolate acuminate. Flowers in terminal compound cymes. Sepals free, unequal, the upper hooded, often coloured like the petals. Petals free or slightly united with the anthers, violet blue, white at the base. Stamens 6, the 2 whorls more or less unequal: filaments hairless. Fruit a capsule.
Grown for the attractive leaves.
Cuttings of the shoots or division of the rootstock.
Tall, branched stems with bilaterally symmetrical blue-purple flowers.
About 30 species from tropical C and S America (1 naturalised species in Australia).
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.