Tinantia Genus

Tinantia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae (order Commelinales), comprising around 13 species of annual or perennial herbs native to the Americas. The genus was first described in 1839 and is commonly known as "widow's tears" or "false dayflowers," names that reflect its strong resemblance to the closely related true dayflowers of the genus Commelina. Like other members of Commelinaceae, Tinantia species bear characteristic three-petalled flowers, often in shades of violet, blue, or white, subtended by leaf-like bracts.

The genus is distributed across a broad swath of the Western Hemisphere, from southern Texas and the Caribbean island of Hispaniola through Central America to Argentina, with its greatest diversity concentrated from Mexico to Nicaragua. Tinantia erecta is the most widespread species, ranging from central Mexico to Argentina and naturalised on several continents including in the Azores, Madeira, Java, Angola, and northern India. Tinantia anomala is restricted to Texas and the Mexican state of Durango, while Tinantia pringlei, an alpine native of Mexico's northeastern ranges, is cultivated as an ornamental in temperate gardens and has become a common greenhouse weed.

The genus honours François Tinant, a nineteenth-century Luxembourger forester, and was established as a distinct genus to separate these American herbs from the broader Commelina alliance.