Commelina africana L.

Spreading perennial herbs (chamaephytes) up to 0.5 m tall, glabrous or variously pubescent; rootstock hard, woody, with hard, thick, long roots. Leaves variable, oblong to linear, flat or folded, up to 120 mm long but usually smaller, glabrous to variously hairy. Spathes folded, dry inside, solitary, pedunculate; apex acute to long-acuminate, often falcate. Both cymes well developed. Flowers varying in size, petals yellow. Ovary 5-ovuled. Capsule oblong, with dorsal locule indehiscent, 1-seeded or often empty, ventral locules dehiscent, each 2-ovuled but usually 1-seeded, lower ovules aborting. Seeds oblong-ellipsoid, reticulate.

A tropical plant. It grows in well-drained rocky and sandy soils. It grows in hot arid zones. It grows in places with a marked dry season. It can grow between 2 and 2,160 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places. In Tanzania it grows in areas with a rainfall between 900-1,900 mm. It grows in wet grassland savannah.

The leaves are cooked as a potherb. They are soft so are mixed with other types of leafy vegetables. The leaves are chopped and boiled in water or milk. The underground bulbs are eaten by children.

It is grown from sections of the rhizomes.