Asiatic day flower commelina communis

Hello permies, I identified another noxious weedy medicinal that is a pretty heavy presence in my forest garden and thought I would share since I found nothing on the forum about it.

Some good things:
Can treat diabetes
Has multiple medicinal compounds
Has the ability to pull metals out of the soil
Blue dye plant
Used as high antioxidant veggie and fodder crop
Highly invasive
Easy to weed since the whole root system pulls out of ground
Covers ground very quickly
Flowers look beautiful


Up until now I have been chopping and dropping it which is creating a fantastic amount of mulch in the garden. In the future I will experiment with it's other uses. Anyone else seen this creeping around their property?




wiki link

info link

Thanks for letting us know about all its uses. I just weeded a bunch last week but I will look at it with new eyes next time it comes up!

Thanks again Zach!
Here is some more Info on the plant:

Commelina Communis At PFAF

Dayflowers At Eat The Weeds

we have a nice patch of this.....I've always liked the flower and the fact that it can hold its own against bermuda grass...the dye use you mentioned caught my eve, even though it is just the flowers it might be fun with some yellow dye flowers also for a greenish color.
I didn't know any of those uses for it........thanks for starting this thread, Zach:)

Zach Muller wrote:
Up until now I have been chopping and dropping it which is creating a fantastic amount of mulch in the garden. In the future I will experiment with it's other uses. Anyone else seen this creeping around their property?

I wouldn't use it for mulch. The one in the Islands is Commelina diffusa, and every piece of it will grow into a new plant. It is one of our most difficult weeds to clear.