Tradescantia fluminensis |
Tradescantia wrightii |
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small-leaf spiderwort, white-flower wandering jew |
Wright's spiderwort |
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Habit | Herbs, decumbent, rooting at nodes. | Herbs, erect or ascending, rarely rooting at nodes. |
Stems | unbranched, 5–18 cm. |
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Leaves | 2-ranked; blade lanceolate-elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 2.5–5 × 1–2 cm (distal leaf blades wider or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), margins ciliolate, apex acute, glabrous. |
blade linear-lanceolate, 4–10 × 0.2–0.5 cm (distal leaf blades equal to or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), firmly membranaceous to subsucculent, glaucous or glaucescent, glabrous. |
Inflorescences | terminal, becoming leaf-opposed, sometimes axillary from distalmost leaf axil, 1–2 cyme pairs per stem; bracts mostly foliaceous, occasionally reduced. |
terminal, solitary; bracts foliaceous. |
Flowers | distinctly pedicillate; pedicels 1–1.5 cm, glandular-pilose; sepals 5–7 mm, midrib pilose with eglandular hairs; petals distinct, white, not clawed, 8–9 mm; stamens free; filaments white, densely bearded with white hairs. |
distinctly pedicillate; pedicels 1.2–1.7 cm, with few to many minute glandular hairs (or glabrous); sepals glaucous or glaucescent, 0.5–0.6 cm, glabrous or with a few minute glandular hairs at base; petals distinct, rose to magenta or purple, broadly ovate, not clawed, 1 cm; stamens free; filaments bearded. |
Capsules | 3–4 mm. |
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Seeds | 2–3 mm. |
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n | = 6. |
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Tradescantia fluminensis |
Tradescantia wrightii |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering spring–fall (May–Sep). |
Habitat | Woods, roadsides, and open areas, sometimes as weed | Moist canyon stream banks |
Distribution |
AL; CA; FL; LA; native; South America (Brazil–Argentina); Africa (South Africa); Australia [Introduced in North America; introduced in North America]
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NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila) |
Discussion | This species was recorded north to North Carolina (J. K. Small 1933), but I have not seen any supporting records from Georgia or North Carolina. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Tradescantia wrightii var. glandulopubescens was described for Mexican plants with glandular-pubescent pedicels and sepals (B. L. Turner 1983), and this variety was listed for Texas (B. L. Turner 1993; S. L. Hatch et al. 1990). All U.S. collections that I have examined, however, including the holotype of T. wrightii, have at least some glandular hairs on these parts. Marshall Johnson believes that this is a valid variety, and I may not have examined typical specimens, but the diagnosis is not differential from the typical variety. Tradescantia wrightii and T. pinetorum belong to section Tradescantia ser. Tuberosae D. R. Hunt and differ from the species of ser. Virginianae D. R. Hunt (species 1–19) by being geophytes (instead of hemicryptophytes) and in having the hilum much shorter than the seed (instead of ± equal to the seed). Tradescantia wrightii differs from T. pinetorum by its lack of root tubers, its glabrous leaves and internodes, and the absence of lateral inflorescences. The glandular hairs on the pedicels and sepal bases, much shorter than those of T. pinetorum, are easily overlooked. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 22. | FNA vol. 22. |
Parent taxa | Commelinaceae > Tradescantia | Commelinaceae > Tradescantia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Vellozo: Florae Fluminensis 140; plate vol. 3, 152. (1829) | Rose & Bush |
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