Polyspatha

{{Short description|Genus of plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Polyspatha paniculata CB Clarke Monographiae Phaneorogamarum Tab 3.jpeg

|image_caption = Polyspatha paniculataillustration accompanying original description of the genus. C.B. Clarke in Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle; Lithography by A. Leuba - Table III from C.B. Clarke's treatment of Commelinaceae in Monographiæ phanerogamarum, 1881

|display_parents = 2

|taxon = Polyspatha

|authority = Benth., 1849

|type_species = Polyspatha paniculata

|type_species_authority = Benth.

}}

Polyspatha is a genus of perennial monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Commelinaceae. It is restricted to tropical Africa consists of three recognized species.{{Cite web|url=http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=259419|title=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew|website=apps.kew.org|access-date=2016-08-11}}

The genus is characterised by its unique leaf-like bracts that subtend inflorescences (often called spathes), which are arranged oppositely up the flowering shoot. Plants in the genus also have white flowers, two carpels with one seed in each, and vegetative reproduction by stolons.{{Citation| last =Faden| first =Robert B.| contribution =Commelinaceae| year =1998| title =The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants| editor-last =Kubitzki| editor-first =Klaus| volume =4| pages =109–128| place =Berlin| publisher =Springer| isbn=3-540-64061-4}} Along with most other genera of the Commelineae tribe with relatively few species, Polyspatha is found in tropical forest understories, and also in disturbed shady locations.{{Citation| last =Evans| first =Timothy M.; Sytsma, Kenneth J.; Faden, Robert B.; Givnish, Thomas J.| title =Phylogenetic Relationships in the Commelinaceae: II. A Cladistic Analysis of rbcL Sequences and Morphology| volume =28| number=2| pages =270–292| journal =Systematic Botany| year = 2003 |doi = 10.1043/0363-6445-28.2.270 | doi-broken-date =12 July 2025}}

; Species

• Polyspatha paniculata Benth. - western + central Africa from Sierra Leone to Zaire + Tanzania
• Polyspatha oligospatha Faden - western + central Africa from Ivory Coast to Zaire + Sudan
• Polyspatha hirsuta Mildbr. - western + central Africa from Sierra Leone to Zaire + Uganda