Herbs, annual (sometimes perennial in south), diffusely spreading, rooting at nodes. Leaves: blade lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong, lanceolate-elliptic or ovate, 1.5--5(--8) cm, 0.5--1.8(--2.2) cm, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences: proximal cyme 2--4-flowered, distal cyme of larger spathes usually exserted, 1--several-flowered; spathes solitary, pedunculate, usually distinctly falcate, (0.5--)0.8--2.5(--3.7) ´ 0.4--1.2(--1.4) cm, apex usually acuminate; peduncles 0.5--2(--2.9) cm. Flowers blue (rarely lavender); medial stamen anther connective with broad, transverse band of violet. Capsules 3-locular, 2-valved, 4--6.3 ´ (2.1--)3--4 mm. Seeds 5, brown, 2--2.8(--3.2) mm ´ 1.4--1.8 mm, deeply reticulate. 2n = 30.

Flowering spring--fall. Disturbed situations (lawns, gardens, and cultivated ground), moist places, and woods; introduced; Ala., Ark., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.C., Ohio, Okla., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.; pantropical.

The report of this plant from Minnesota (H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist 1991) is probably based on wrongly determined material.

In moist, wet, or muddy places along streams and in ditches and cultivated grounds in the southern part of the state. The petals are very variable in size. Five specimens were measured in the field and the measurements are as follows: the blades of the largest petals ranged from 2.25-10 mm wide and about as long, the smallest were about 1.25-4 mm wide and nearly as long. This is a tropical species that ranges northward to the southern part of this state.