The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

creeping inchplant

grassleaf roseling

Habit Herbs, perennial, mat-forming, repent (flowering stems ascending). Herbs, perennial, cespitose, erect to ascending.
Roots

glabrous to sparsely puberulent.

Stems

(4–)15–25(–40) cm.

Leaves

2-ranked, gradually reduced toward ends of flowering stems;

blade ovate to lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, 1–3.5 × 0.6–1 cm (distal leaf blades much narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), margins scabrid, apex acute, glabrous.

ascending;

basal leaf sheaths glabrous to pilose or puberulent;

blade linear, 4–17 × 0.1–0.5 mm (distal leaf blades much narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened).

Inflorescences

sessile in axils of distal leaves of flowering stems, composed of pairs of sessile cymes (sometimes reduced to single cymes).

bracts often elongate, sometimes minute, 2–14 mm, if elongate ± herbaceous, if minute scarious.

Flowers

bisexual and pistillate, odorless, subsessile;

petals inconspicuous, white, lanceolate, 3–6 mm;

stamens 0–6, long-exserted;

filaments glabrous;

ovary 2-locular, stigma penicillate.

pedicellate;

pedicels (0.7–)1.2–2 cm;

petals pink to rose, 8–10 mm;

filaments bearded.

Capsules

2-locular.

2–3.5 mm.

Seeds

1 mm.

1.5–2 mm.

n

= 6, 12, 18.

Callisia repens

Callisia graminea

Phenology Flowering early spring (Tex) or summer–fall (Fla.). Flowering spring–fall.
Habitat Shady, rocky or gravelly places, and in citrus groves Sandy soil in pine-oak woods (especially longleaf pine and turkey oak) and pine barrens, often on sandhills, occasionally in thickets, old fields and roadsides
Distribution
from FNA
FL; LA; TX; West Indies; South America (to Argentina) [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; GA; NC; SC; VA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

I have not been able to confirm the record of this species from Maryland in M. L. Brown and R. G. Brown (1984).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 22. FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Commelinaceae > Callisia Commelinaceae > Callisia
Sibling taxa
C. cordifolia, C. fragrans, C. graminea, C. micrantha, C. ornata, C. rosea
C. cordifolia, C. fragrans, C. micrantha, C. ornata, C. repens, C. rosea
Synonyms Cuthbertia graminea, Tradescantia rosea var. graminea
Name authority (Jacquin) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl., ed. 2 1: 62. (1762) (Small) G. C. Tucker: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 70:118. (1989)
Web links