• Family : COMMELINACEAE
  (Spiderwort Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : KANA FAMILY (काना फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : Commelinaceae
• Basionym : Commelina cristata L.
• Synonym(s) : Ephemerum cristatum (L.) Moench; Siphostigma cristata (L.) Raf.; Tonningia cristata (L.) Kuntze; Tradescantia cristata (L.) L.; Zygomenes cristata (L.) W.Wight; Commelina papilionacea Burm.f.; Cyanotis cavaleriei H.Lév. & Vaniot; Cyanotis huegelii Hassk.; Cyanotis imbricata (Roxb.) Kunth; Cyanotis papilionacea (Burm.f.) Schult. & Schult.f.; Cyanotis racemosa C.B.Clarke; Tonningia papilionacea (Burm.f.) Kuntze; Tradescantia cristata B.Heyne ex C.B.Clarke; Tradescantia imbricata Roxb.; Tradescantia papilionacea (Burm.f.) L.; Tradescantia umbellata B.Heyne ex C.B.Clarke
• Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Cyanotis cristata (L.) D.Don
• Common name : Crested Cat Ears
• Vernacular name :
  • Nabhali (Malayalam)
  • Eggoli Telugu)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Grasslands, degraded forest areas and wastelandS
• Comments / notes : In marshy, damp and shaded places. Occasional on hills above 1000m, less in plains and foothills
• Flower, Fruit : July-November
• Collector(s) Name : Raja K. Swamy; Raja K. swamy, Arun Singh
• Collection Date : 15-11-2014, 13-09-2014
• Collection Nos : HJCB-E-243; HJCB-0044
• Collection Locality : Batrepalli forest, Anantpur district (AP); Jamunamarthur, Tiruvannamalai district (TN)
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Common in forests
  • Karnataka : Kolar district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : All districts of Maharashtra
  • Odisha : Common
  • Tamil Nadu : Hills above 1000m
  • Madhya Pradesh : Hoshangabad district
  • Uttarakhand : Uttarakhand
  • Sikkim : Sikkim
  • Himachal Pradesh : Himachal Pradesh
  • Arunachal Pradesh : Kameng, Tirap
  • Meghalaya : Meghalaya
  • Assam : Assam
  • Nagaland : Nagaland
  • Uttar Pradesh : Uttar Pradesh
  • Jammu and Kashmir : Jammu and Kashmir
  • Mizoram : Mizoram
  • Manipur : Manipur
  • Tripura : Tripura
  • Lakshadweep : Lakshadweep
• Native : Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Hainan, India, Jawa, Lakshadweep Islands, Laos, Malaya, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Socotra, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam
• Exotic/Native : Native
• World Distribution : Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Hainan, India, Jawa, Lakshadweep Islands, Laos, Malaya, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Socotra, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature :
  • J.L.Ellis, 1990- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 2
  • H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 3
  • R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District
  • R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District
  • H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa
  • N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka
  • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1.
  • B. D. Sharma, S. Karthikeyan & N. P. Singh 1996 - Flora of Maharashtra state - Monocotyledons Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (2). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983
  • Pullaiah, 1997. Fl. Andhra Pradesh, vol. 3. pp. 1006
  • Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
  • H J, Chowdhery, et al. Materials for Flora of Arunachal Pradesh. Volume 3, Botanical Survey of India, 2009. Pg.: 214
• Read more :
  • Plants of the World Online
  • World Flora Online
  • Global Plants on JSTOR
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2024). India Flora Online. http://indiafloraonline-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Cyanotis cristata. Downloaded on 1 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Line Drawings

Field Image(s)

Habitat

India Distribution

World Distribution