Pollia Thunberg (1781: 11)

Jameera, A., Nampy, Santhosh & Janeesha, A. P., 2016, A taxonomic revision of Pollia (Commelinaceae) in India with six lectotypifications, Phytotaxa 263 (3), pp. 202-218 : 203

Pollia Thunberg (1781: 11) . Type:— Pollia japonica Thunb. (1781: 11)

Aclisia E.Meyer ex C. Presl (1827:137) . Type:— Aclisia sorzogonensis E.Mey. ex C. Presl (1827: 138) .

Lamprocarpus Blume ex Schultes & Schultes (1830: 1615 , 1726). Type:— Lamprocarpus thyrsiflorus Blume ex Schultes & Schultes (1830: 1726) .

Diffusely branched, stoloniferous or rhizomatous perennial herbs. Roots fibrous. Leaves spirally arranged, petiolate. Inflorescence thyrsus, terminal, composed of few to many cincinni. Flowers actinomorphic to slightly zygomorphic, pedicellate. Sepals free, subequal, sepaline or petaline. Petals free, equal or posterior 2 slightly differentiated from the anterior one, sometimes shortly clawed. Stamens 6, equal, fertile, or posterior 3 shorter than the anterior 3 and either fertile or staminodial; filaments free, glabrous. Fruits berry like, hard and crustaceous, indehiscent, trilocular, usually lustrous, metallic blue. Seeds biseriate or rarely uniseriate, 3–8 (–11) per locule; hilum ± punctiform, embryotega dorsal ( Faden 1998).

Distribution:—Tropical Africa, West Indian ocean, tropical and subtropical Asia to southwest Pacific and central America ( Govaerts & Faden 2015).

Ecology:—An exclusively forest genus occurring in stream banks in evergreen forests, moist rocky areas on forest margins, forest understory and forest edges, from near sea level to 1800 meters.