Tradescantia pallida |
Tradescantia fluminensis |
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purple queen |
small-leaf spiderwort, white-flower wandering jew |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, succulent. | Herbs, decumbent, rooting at nodes. |
Stems | suffused with purplish violet. |
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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. |
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. |
Inflorescences | terminal, often becoming leaf-opposed, pedunculate; peduncles (3.5–)4–13 cm; bracts similar to leaves but usually greatly reduced. |
terminal, becoming leaf-opposed, sometimes axillary from distalmost leaf axil, 1–2 cyme pairs per stem; bracts mostly foliaceous, occasionally reduced. |
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 1–1.5 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. |
Capsules | 3.5 mm, glabrous. |
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Seeds | 2.5–3 mm. |
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2n | = 24 (Mexico). |
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Tradescantia pallida |
Tradescantia fluminensis |
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Phenology | Flowering summer–fall. | Flowering spring–fall. |
Habitat | Landfill and old home sites | Woods, roadsides, and open areas, sometimes as weed |
Distribution |
FL; LA; Mexico; native [Introduced in North America]
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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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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.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 22. | FNA vol. 22. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Setcreasea pallida, Setcreasea purpurea | |
Name authority | (Rose) D. R. Hunt: Kew Bull. 30: 452. (1975) | Vellozo: Florae Fluminensis 140; plate vol. 3, 152. (1829) |
Web links |