taxon_rank tradescantia spathacea
British Honduras was the name of a territory on the east coast of Central America , south of Mexico , after it became a British Crown colony in 1862 . In 1964 it became a self - governing colony . The colony was renamed Belize in June 1973 and gained full independence in September 1981 . British Honduras was the last continental possession of the United ___MASK80___ in the Americas . In plant taxonomy , commelinids ( originally commelinoids ) ( plural , not capitalised ) is a name used by the APG III system for a clade within the monocots , which in its turn is a clade within the angiosperms . The commelinids are the only clade that the APG has informally named within the monocots . The remaining monocots are a paraphyletic unit . Also known as the commelinid monocots it forms one of three groupings within the monocots , and the final ___MASK97___ , the other two groups being the alismatid monocots and the lilioid monocots . A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican ___MASK58___ of government . At its core , the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a ___MASK58___ of government means : " a country that is governed by elected representatives and by an elected leader ( such as a president ) rather than by a king or queen ". Commelinales is the botanical name of an ___MASK78___ of flowering plants . It comprises five families : Commelinaceae , Haemodoraceae , Hanguanaceae , Philydraceae , and Pontederiaceae . All the families combined contain over 800 ___MASK46___ in about 70 genera ; the majority of ___MASK46___ are in the Commelinaceae . Plants in the ___MASK78___ share a number of synapomorphies that tie them together , such as a lack of mycorrhizal associations and tapetal raphides . Estimates differ as to when the Comminales evolved , but most suggest an origin and diversification sometime during the mid - to late Cretaceous . Depending on the methods used , studies suggest a range of origin between 123 and 73 million years , with diversification occurring within the group 110 to 66 million years ago . The ___MASK78___ ' s closest relatives are in the Zingiberales , which includes ginger , bananas , cardamom , and others . Tradescantia spathacea , the boatlily or Moses - in - the - Cradle , is a herb in the Commelinaceae first described in 1788 . It is native to Belize , Guatemala , and southern Mexico ( Chiapas , Tabasco , and the Yucatán Peninsula ) but widely cultivated as an ornamental and naturalized in parts of Florida , Texas , Hawaii , and various oceanic islands . Tradescantia spathacea has fleshy rhizomes and rosettes of waxy lance - shaped leaves . Leaves are dark to metallic green above , with glossy purple underneath . These will reach up to 1 foot ( 30 cm ) long by 3 inches ( 7 . 5 cm ) wide . They are very attractive foliage plants that will reach 1 foot ( 30 cm ) tall . They are hardy in USDA zones 9 - 12 . Bean is a common name for large seeds of several genera of the flowering plant ___MASK92___ Fabaceae ( also known as Leguminosae ) which are used for human or animal food . Commelina is a ___MASK64___ of approximately 170 ___MASK46___ commonly called dayflowers due to the short lives of their flowers . They are less often known as widow ' s tears . It is by far the largest ___MASK64___ of its family , Commelinaceae . The Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus of the 18th century named the ___MASK64___ after the two Dutch botanists Jan Commelijn and his nephew Caspar , each representing one of the showy petals of " Commelina communis ". An inflorescence is a ___MASK69___ or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main ___MASK97___ or a complicated arrangement of branches . Morphologically , it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified . The modifications can involve the length and the nature of the internodes and the phyllotaxis , as well as variations in the proportions , compressions , swellings , adnations , connations and reduction of main and secondary axes . Inflorescence can also be defined as the reproductive portion of a plant that bears a cluster of flowers in a specific pattern . Commelinaceae is a ___MASK92___ of flowering plants . In less formal contexts , the group is referred to as the dayflower ___MASK92___ or spiderwort ___MASK92___ . It is one of five families in the order Commelinales and by far the largest of these with about 731 known ___MASK46___ in 41 genera . Well known genera include " Commelina " ( dayflowers ) and " Tradescantia " ( spiderworts ). The ___MASK92___ is diverse in both the Old World tropics and the New World tropics , with some genera present in both . The variation in morphology , especially that of the flower and inflorescence , is considered to be exceptionally high amongst the angiosperms . The ___MASK92___ has always been recognized by most taxonomists . The APG III system of 2009 ( unchanged from the APG system of 1998 ), also recognizes this ___MASK92___ , and assigns it to the order Commelinales in the clade commelinids in the monocots . The ___MASK92___ counts several hundred ___MASK46___ of herbaceous plants . Many are cultivated as ornamentals . The stems of these plants are generally well - developed , and often swollen at the nodes . Flowers are often short - lived , lasting for a day or less . Latin America is a ___MASK69___ of countries and dependencies in the Americas where Romance languages are predominant . The term originated in 19th century France as " Amérique latine " to consider French - speaking territories in the Americas ( Haiti , French Guiana , Martinique , Guadeloupe , Saint Martin , Saint Barthélemy ) along with the larger ___MASK69___ of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed . It is therefore broader than the terms Ibero - America or Hispanic America  though it usually excludes French Canada and modern French Louisiana . Belize , formerly British Honduras , is a country on the eastern coast of Central America . Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico , on the south and west by Guatemala , and on the east by the Caribbean Sea . Its mainland is about long and wide . Mexico (, modern Nahuatl ), officially the United Mexican States , is a federal republic in the southern half of North America . It is bordered to the north by the United States ; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean ; to the southeast by Guatemala , Belize , and the Caribbean Sea ; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico . Covering almost two million square kilometers ( over 760 , 000 sq mi ), Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent nation in the world . With an estimated population of over 120 million , it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish - speaking country in the world while being the second most populous country in Latin America . Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city . Other metropolises include Guadalajara , Monterrey , Puebla , Toluca , Tijuana and León . Polynesia ( from " poly " " many " + " nsos " " island ") is a subregion of Oceania , made up of over 1 , 000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean . The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language ___MASK92___ , culture , and beliefs . Historically , they were experienced sailors and used stars to navigate during the night . An archipelago , sometimes called an island ___MASK69___ or island chain , is a chain , cluster or collection of islands . The word " archipelago " is derived from the Greek "  -  arkhi -" (" chief ") and "   pélagos " (" sea ") through the Italian " arcipelago ". In Italian , possibly following a tradition of antiquity , the Archipelago ( from medieval Greek "*  " and Latin " archipelagus ") was the proper name for the Aegean Sea and , later , usage shifted to refer to the Aegean Islands ( since the sea is remarkable for its large number of islands ). It is now used to refer to any island ___MASK69___ or , sometimes , to a sea containing a small number of scattered islands . A flower , sometimes known as a bloom or blossom , is the reproductive structure found in plants that are floral ( plants of the ___MASK52___ Magnoliophyta , also called angiosperms ). The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction , usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs . Flowers may facilitate outcrossing ( fusion of sperm and eggs from different individuals in a population ) or allow selfing ( fusion of sperm and egg from the same flower ). Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization ( parthenocarpy ). Flowers contain sporangia and are the site where gametophytes develop . Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals , so as to cause them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen . After fertilization , the ovary of the flower develops into fruit containing seeds . Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America , having received statehood on August 21 , 1959 . Hawaii is the only U . S . state located in Oceania and the only one composed entirely of islands . It is the northernmost island ___MASK69___ in Polynesia , occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean . Hawaii is the only U . S . state not located in the Americas . The APG system ( Angiosperm Phylogeny ___MASK69___ system ) of plant classification is the first version of a modern , mostly molecular - based , system of plant taxonomy . Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny ___MASK69___ , it was replaced by the improved APG II in 2003 , APG III system in 2009 and APG IV system in 2016 . Tradescantia , the spiderworts , is a ___MASK64___ of 75 ___MASK46___ of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Commelinaceae , native to the New World from southern Canada south to northern Argentina including the West Indies . They were introduced into Europe as ornamental plants in the seventeenth century and are now grown as such in many parts of the world . Subsequently , some ___MASK46___ have become naturalized in various regions of Europe , Asia , Africa , Australia and assorted oceanic islands . Guatemala (, or ), officially the Republic of Guatemala , is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west , the Pacific Ocean to the southwest , Belize to the northeast , the Caribbean to the east , Honduras to the east and El Salvador to the southeast . With an estimated population of around 15 . 8 million , it is the most populated state in Central America . A representative democracy , Guatemala ' s capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción , also known as Guatemala City . The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern , mostly molecular - based , system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny ___MASK69___ ( APG ). Published in 2009 , it was superseded in 2016 by a further revision , the APG IV system . Representative democracy ( also indirect democracy , representative republic , or psephocracy ) is a type of democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing a ___MASK69___ of people , as opposed to direct democracy . Nearly all modern Western - style democracies are types of representative democracies ; for example , the United ___MASK80___ is a crowned republic , Ireland is a parliamentary republic , and the United States is a federal republic .