Cochliostema

Cochliostema is a genus of plants with two species in the family Commelinaceae (the spiderwort and dayflower family). The genus occurs from southern Nicaragua to southern Ecuador.

==Systematics== Cochliostema is a member of the subtribe Dichorisandrinae of the tribe Tradescantieae of the flowering plant family Commelinaceae. Its closest relative in the Dichorisandrinae is Plowmanianthus, followed by Geogenanthus. All three genera share the possession of flower petals fringed with moniliform trichomes. Within Cochliostema there are two species: Cochliostema velutinum R.W.Read and Cochliostema odoratissimum Lemaire. Cochliostema jacobianum, a 19th-century name thought to represent another species and still popular among horticulturists, is considered as part of the latter species.