The genus is characterised by its unique leaf-like bracts that subtend inflorescences (often called spathes), which are arranged oppositely up the flowering shoot. Plants in the genus also have white flowers, two carpels with one seed in each, and vegetative reproduction by stolons.[3] Along with most other genera of the Commelineae tribe with relatively few species, Polyspatha is found in tropical forest understories, and also in disturbed shady locations.[3][4]
Polyspatha paniculata Benth. - western + central Africa from Sierra Leone to Zaire + Tanzania
Polyspatha oligospatha Faden - western + central Africa from Ivory Coast to Zaire + Sudan
Polyspatha hirsuta Mildbr. - western + central Africa from Sierra Leone to Zaire + Uganda
References
^illustration accompanying original description of the genus. C.B. Clarke in Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle; Lithography by A. Leuba - Table III from C.B. Clarke's treatment of Commelinaceae in Monographiæ phanerogamarum, 1881
^ abFaden, Robert B. (1998), "Commelinaceae", in Kubitzki, Klaus (ed.), The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, vol. 4, Berlin: Springer, pp. 109–128, ISBN3-540-64061-4
^Evans, Timothy M.; Sytsma, Kenneth J.; Faden, Robert B.; Givnish, Thomas J. (2003), "Phylogenetic Relationships in the Commelinaceae: II. A Cladistic Analysis of rbcL Sequences and Morphology", Systematic Botany, 28 (2): 270–292, doi:10.1043/0363-6445-28.2.270 (inactive 1 November 2024){{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
