Latin Name: Commelina cyanea
Description: A weak straggling herb. It is an evergreen plant, grows to 30 cm high and spreads to 2 m across. The stems are weak and fleshy, and lie along the ground forming roots at the nodes. The leaves are green or blue, and sword shaped, 3-7 cm long, by 2 cm across. They form a sheath at the base. The flowers are bright blue, with 3 petals, 1.5 cm across. The flowers are carried on a branched flower stalk and open in the morning to then collapse by afternoon.
Notes: It does resemble the introduced weed wandering Jew (Tradescantia fluminensis), but the latter has white flowers and a segmented stem, a weak root system. It also lacks the hairy leaf sheathes of C. cyanea. However, C. cyanea can itself be weedy in gardens at times.
Edibility Rating out of 5: 2
Medicinal Rating out of 5: 1
Edible Uses: The leaves are used as an edible vegetable. The leaves were used by early non-indigenous colonists to alleviate scurvy, and hence its common name.
It is easily propagated from cuttings.
Medicinal Uses: Used by early Australian colonist to alleviate scurvy.