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bract spiderwort, long-bract spiderwort

Habit Herbs, erect or ascending, rarely rooting at nodes.
Roots

not brownish-tomentose.

Stems

sparsely branched, 5–45 cm, glabrous, or puberulent distally.

Leaves

stiff;

blade bright green, linear-lanceolate, 15–29 × 0.9–2 cm (distal leaf blades equal to or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), apex long acuminate, glabrous.

Inflorescences

terminal, solitary, sometimes also lateral and pedunculate from distal nodes;

bracts foliaceous, glabrous, or rarely sheath puberulent.

Flowers

distinctly pedicillate;

pedicels 1.8–3.3 cm, pubescent with mixture of glandular, eglandular hairs;

sepals, 10–13 mm, densely pubescent with mixture of glandular, eglandular hairs, glandular hairs numerous, conspicuous, longer hairs 1.5–6 mm;

petals distinct, usually bright rose, less commonly blue, ovate, not clawed, 18–19 mm;

stamens free;

filaments bearded.

Capsules

5–6 mm.

Seeds

2–3 mm;

hilum as long as seed.

2n

= 12, 24.

Tradescantia bracteata

Phenology Flowering spring (Apr–Jun).
Habitat Prairies, spreading to thickets, roadsides, and railroad rights-of-way
Distribution
from FNA
CO; IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; OK; SD; WI; WY
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Discussion

The record of this species from Indiana (E. Anderson and R. E. Woodson Jr. 1935) was based on a depauperate specimen of Tradescantia virginiana (E. Anderson 1954); the internodes on an unnumbered specimen collected by Mason, however, deposited at the Field Museum in Chicago, are puberulent with glandular and eglandular hairs. I have seen this character in an occasional specimen of T. bracteata but never in T. virginiana.

Tradescantia bracteata was distinguished from T. occidentalis partly by the former's unbranched stems versus the freely branched in T. occidentalis (M. Bolick 1981). By using this feature, branching specimens from Minnesota would be identified as T. occidentalis, although their sepal pubescence and lax, green, pubescent-margined bracts and leaves clearly place them in T. bracteata.

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

Source FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Commelinaceae > Tradescantia
Sibling taxa
T. brevifolia, T. buckleyi, T. crassifolia, T. crassula, T. edwardsiana, T. ernestiana, T. fluminensis, T. gigantea, T. hirsuticaulis, T. hirsutiflora, T. humilis, T. leiandra, T. longipes, T. occidentalis, T. ohiensis, T. ozarkana, T. pallida, T. paludosa, T. pedicellata, T. pinetorum, T. reverchonii, T. roseolens, T. spathacea, T. subacaulis, T. subaspera, T. tharpii, T. virginiana, T. wrightii, T. zebrina
Name authority Small: in N. L. Britton and A. Brown, An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States 3: 510. (1898)
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