Tinantia is a genus of plants in the Commelinaceae, first described in 1839. They are commonly called widow's tears or false dayflowers due to their resemblance of the closely related true dayflowers of the genus Commelina. Tinantia is native to North and South America from Texas + Hispaniola to Argentina, with a center of diversity from Mexico to Nicaragua. Tinantia pringlei, an alpine native of Mexico, is grown as an ornamental in temperate areas and is also a common greenhouse weed.
The genus was named in honour of François Tinant, a Luxembourger forester.
Species
Tinantia anomala (Torr.) C.B.Clarke - Texas, Durango
Tinantia caribaea Urb. - Lesser Antilles, Trinidad & Tobago, Colombia
Tinantia erecta (Jacq.) Fenzl - widespread from central Mexico to Argentina; naturalized in Azores, Madeira, Java, Angola, northern India
Tinantia glabra (Standl. & Steyerm.) Rohweder - southern Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela
Tinantia leiocalyx C.B.Clarke ex J.D.Sm. - central + southern Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela
Tinantia longipedunculata Standl. & Steyerm. - central + southern Mexico, Central America
Tinantia macrophylla S.Wats. - Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Jalisco
Tinantia parviflora Rohweder - central + southern Mexico, Central America, Colombia
Tinantia pringlei (S.Watson) Rohweder - Tamaulipas, Nuevo León
Tinantia sprucei C.B.Clarke - Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, Brazil
Tinantia standleyi Steyerm. - central + southern Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, southern Brazil
Tinantia umbellata (Vahl) Urb. - Guyana, Venezuela
Tinantia violacea Rohweder - southern Mexico, Central America
