Tradescantia ernestiana |
Commelinaceae |
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Ernest's spiderwort |
spiderwort family |
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Habit | Herbs, erect or ascending, rarely rooting at nodes. | Herbs, perennial or annual. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Roots | (1–)1.5–5 mm thick, fleshy. |
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Stems | not flexuous, 5–40 cm; internodes usually glabrous. |
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Leaves | spirally arranged, sessile; blade dull green, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong, 9–27 × 1–4 cm (distal leaf blades wider than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), base cuneate to rounded, apex acuminate, not glaucous, glabrous or sparsely puberulent. |
basal or cauline, alternate; sheaths closed; blade simple, often succulent, margins entire, venation parallel. |
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Inflorescences | terminal; bracts foliaceous. |
terminal or terminal and axillary [sometimes all axillary], sometimes becoming leaf-opposed, cymose (cymes scorpioid), thyrsiform or variously reduced, sometimes umbel-like, sometimes enclosed in spathaceous bracts. |
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Flowers | distinctly pedicillate; pedicels 2–3.2 cm, minutely pilose; sepals somewhat inflated, 9–16 mm, uniformly eglandular-pilose; petals distinct, deep blue, purple, or rose-red, broadly ovate, not clawed, 1.2–1.5 cm; stamens free; filaments bearded. |
bisexual or bisexual and staminate on same plants, rarely bisexual and pistillate on same plants [bisexual and unisexual (staminate and pistillate), all on same plants], bilaterally or radially symmetric; sepals 3, sepaloid [occasionally petaloid], distinct or occasionally connate, usually subequal; petals 3, deliquescent, petaloid, distinct or connate, equal or unequal; stamens 6, all fertile or some staminodial or absent (rarely all stamens absent); anthers with longitudinal [rarely poricidal] dehiscence; ovary superior, 2–3-locular; ovules 1-seriate [2-seriate]; style 1, simple, usually slender; stigma 1, simple [rarely slightly 3-lobed], enlarged or not. |
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Fruits | loculicidal capsules [rarely indehiscent or berries]. |
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Capsules | 5–7 mm. |
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Seeds | 2–3 mm. |
1–several [rarely many] per locule; hilum dotlike or linear; lidlike embryotega covering embryo. |
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2n | = 12. |
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Tradescantia ernestiana |
Commelinaceae |
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Phenology | Flowering spring (Mar–May). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Wooded hillsides, ledges and bluffs, occasionally along streams or in pastures | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; GA; MO; OK; TX
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Pantropical and nearly pantemperate; primarily tropical |
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Discussion | Tradescantia ernestiana is sympatric with, and easily confused with, T. virginiana in northern Alabama and perhaps northern Georgia [reported from Georgia by C. Sinclair (1967, p. 87), but no specimens are cited and I have seen none]. At present, the two species can be separated only by the relative width of the blade and sheath of the distal leaves. They are obviously closely related and should be studied in the field in the southern Appalachians where their ranges overlap. The Texas record is taken from C. Sinclair (1967). The hybrid Tradescantia ernestinana × T. ozarkana is known from Arkansas and Missouri. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The flowers lack nectar and are ephemeral, lasting only a few hours. Their structure is seldom preserved in dried specimens. In the absence of well-pressed flowers, mature buds can be readily dissected in situ, and the arrangement and degree of development of the androecium and gynoecium easily determined. Some familiar genera, such as Setcreasea, Zebrina, Rhoeo, and Cuthbertia, have been reduced into synonymy under either Tradescantia or Callisia (D. R. Hunt 1975, 1986, 1986b). Further research is needed to corroborate this treatment, especially for the segregate genera of Callisia, such as Cuthbertia. The same generic delimitation has been followed by R. B. Faden (1998), R. B. Faden and D. R. Hunt (1991), and G. C. Tucker (1989). Genera 40, species ca. 630 (6 genera, 51 species in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 22. | FNA vol. 22, p. 170. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Commelinaceae > Tradescantia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Name authority | E. S. Anderson & Woodson: Contr. Arnold Arbor. 9: 58, plate 8, map 4. (1935) | R. Brown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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