Commelina subulata Roth

Short-lived annuals flowering precociously, at first with a simple, erect stem but becoming many-stemmed and dome-shaped, up to 0.25 m tall, with long internodes, glabrous except for ciliate open leaf-base and margin of spathe. Leaves linear, 40-70 x 3 mm, margins smooth, apex acute. Spathe folded, falcate, sharply recurved, c. 5-10 mm long, subsessile, often striate. Cyme solitary, 2-3-flowered, flowers in turn just exserted at an-thesis, small; petals yellow, orange, pink, apricot, blue or brownish violet. Stamens 3, fertile, coloured like petals; staminodes yellow. Ovary with 2 ovules in each ventral cell, dorsal cell with 1 or 0 ovules. Capsule ovoid, acute, often beaked, with dorsal locule shorter than ventral ones and with a solitary larger seed; seeds of ventral locule subrectangular, with 3 cross-furrows, scarcely tuberculate, smooth.

A subtropical plant. It grows in hot arid regions. It is often in places with a marked dry season. It is often over limestone material. It grows in poorly drained sandy soils. It is often on the edge of pools and in seasonally wet areas. It grows between 380-1,875 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.

The roots are used to make beer. They are pounded and added to beer brewing.