Tradescantia ernestiana |
Tradescantia zebrina |
|
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Ernest's spiderwort |
inchplant, wandering-jew |
|
Habit | Herbs, erect or ascending, rarely rooting at nodes. | Herbs, decumbent. |
Roots | (1–)1.5–5 mm thick, fleshy. |
|
Stems | not flexuous, 5–40 cm; internodes usually glabrous. |
|
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. |
2-ranked; blade variegated, abaxially reddish purple, adaxially striped green and white, lanceolate-elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 3–9 × 1.5–3 cm (distal leaf blades wider or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), base oblique, cuneate, apex acute to acuminate. |
Inflorescences | terminal; bracts foliaceous. |
terminal, consisting of pairs of sessile cymes enclosed in sheaths of spathaceous bracts, pedunculate; spathaceous bracts foliaceous, reduced. |
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. |
subsessile; sepals basally connate, 4–5 mm; petals pink, clawed, claws basally connate forming tube; stamens epipetalous; filaments bearded. |
Capsules | 5–7 mm. |
3-locular; locules 2-seeded. |
Seeds | 2–3 mm. |
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2n | = 12. |
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Tradescantia ernestiana |
Tradescantia zebrina |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring (Mar–May). | Flowering fall–winter (Sep–Feb). |
Habitat | Wooded hillsides, ledges and bluffs, occasionally along streams or in pastures | Hummocks and weedy places |
Distribution |
AL; AR; GA; MO; OK; TX
|
FL; native; tropical America [Introduced in North America] |
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.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 22. | FNA vol. 22. |
Parent taxa | Commelinaceae > Tradescantia | Commelinaceae > Tradescantia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Zebrina pendula | |
Name authority | E. S. Anderson & Woodson: Contr. Arnold Arbor. 9: 58, plate 8, map 4. (1935) | Hort ex Bosse: Vollstandiges Handb. Blumengart. 4: 655. (1849) |
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