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purple queen

bract spiderwort, long-bract spiderwort

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

not brownish-tomentose.

Stems

suffused with purplish violet.

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

Leaves

spirally arranged;

blade not variegated, suffused with purplish violet, lanceolate-oblong to oblong-elliptic, (4–)7–15 × 1.5–3 cm (distal leaf blades wider or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), base symmetric, rounded to broadly cuneate, margins ciliate or ciliolate, apex acute, glabrous or glabrescent.

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, often becoming leaf-opposed, pedunculate;

peduncles (3.5–)4–13 cm;

bracts similar to leaves but usually greatly reduced.

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

bracts foliaceous, glabrous, or rarely sheath puberulent.

Flowers

subsessile;

pedicels 4–9 mm, densely white-pilose at summit;

sepals distinct, 7–10 mm, pilose basally;

petals ± connate at base, pink, clawed, 1.5–2 cm;

stamens epipetalous;

filaments very sparsely bearded.

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

3.5 mm, glabrous.

5–6 mm.

Seeds

2.5–3 mm.

2–3 mm;

hilum as long as seed.

2n

= 24 (Mexico).

= 12, 24.

Tradescantia pallida

Tradescantia bracteata

Phenology Flowering summer–fall. Flowering spring (Apr–Jun).
Habitat Landfill and old home sites Prairies, spreading to thickets, roadsides, and railroad rights-of-way
Distribution
from FNA
FL; LA; Mexico; native [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CO; IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; OK; SD; WI; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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. FNA vol. 22.
Parent taxa Commelinaceae > Tradescantia Commelinaceae > Tradescantia
Sibling taxa
T. bracteata, 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. paludosa, T. pedicellata, T. pinetorum, T. reverchonii, T. roseolens, T. spathacea, T. subacaulis, T. subaspera, T. tharpii, T. virginiana, T. wrightii, T. zebrina
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
Synonyms Setcreasea pallida, Setcreasea purpurea
Name authority (Rose) D. R. Hunt: Kew Bull. 30: 452. (1975) Small: in N. L. Britton and A. Brown, An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States 3: 510. (1898)
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