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creeping inchplant

Florida scrub roseling

Habit Herbs, perennial, mat-forming, repent (flowering stems ascending). Herbs, perennial, not or only scarcely cespitose, erect.
Roots

persistently densely woolly.

Stems

20–50 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.

strongly ascending;

basal leaf sheaths glabrous to puberulent;

blade linear, (2–)10–25 × 0.1–0.4 cm (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 not distinct from bracteoles, usually minute, 1–3(–7) mm, scarious (rarely somewhat herbaceous).

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 1–1.5 cm;

petals pink to rose, 9–13 mm;

stamens 6;

filaments bearded;

ovary 3-locular.

Capsules

2-locular.

3-locular, 3–5 mm.

Seeds

1 mm.

1.5–2 mm.

Callisia repens

Callisia ornata

Phenology Flowering early spring (Tex) or summer–fall (Fla.). Flowering spring, fall.
Habitat Shady, rocky or gravelly places, and in citrus groves Coastal strand
Distribution
from FNA
FL; LA; TX; West Indies; South America (to Argentina) [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; Oak; pine; and palmetto woods and scrub; occasionally fields or roadsides; usually in sandy soil
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

A white-flowered form has been described from central Florida as Callisia ornata forma leucantha Lakela (O. Lakela 1972), but such color forms are hardly worth taxonomic recognition.

(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. graminea, C. micrantha, C. repens, C. rosea
Synonyms Cuthbertia ornata, Tradescantia rosea var. ornata
Name authority (Jacquin) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl., ed. 2 1: 62. (1762) (Small) G. C. Tucker: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 70:118. (1989)
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