Tradescantia pallida
Tradescantia hirsutiflora
purple queen
hairyflower spiderwort
1–1.5(–2) mm thick, scarcely fleshy.
suffused with purplish violet.
unbranched or sparsely branched, 5–50 cm;
internodes densely spreading, pilose or hirsute to glabrous.
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.
spirally arranged, sessile;
blade linear-lanceolate, 10–32 × 0.6–2 cm (distal leaf blades equal to or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), apex acuminate, usually pilose, occasionally glabrous or glabrescent.
terminal, often becoming leaf-opposed, pedunculate;
peduncles (3.5–)4–13 cm;
bracts similar to leaves but usually greatly reduced.
terminal, sometimes axillary;
bracts foliaceous, well developed, not saccate, sparsely to densely pilose.
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 1–3 cm, usually pilose;
sepals not inflated, 7–16 mm, usually uniformly eglandular-pilose, rarely a few inconspicuous glandular hairs present;
petals distinct, bright blue to rose, rarely white, broadly ovate, not clawed, 12–19 mm;
stamens free;
filaments bearded.
3.5 mm, glabrous.
5–7 mm.
2.5–3 mm.
2–3 mm.
= 24 (Mexico).
= 12, 24.
Tradescantia pallida
Tradescantia hirsutiflora
Tradescantia hirsutiflora was considered their most ill-defined species by E. Anderson and R. E. Woodson Jr. (1935). The difficulties in separating it from T. virginiana have been mentioned under that species. A specimen from Beaufort County, South Carolina appears to be a hybrid between T. hirsutiflora and T. ohiensis, but there is no record of T. hirsutiflora from the state. Some specimens from Highlands County, Florida will key to, and probably are, T. hirsutiflora. They represent a range disjunction from the Florida panhandle. Their relationships with the co-occurring T. roseolens are being investigated.
This species commonly has been confused with Tradescantia hirsuticaulis (J. K. Small 1933; R. P. Wunderlin 1982), perhaps because of the similar name. They are not closely related.
Specimens of Tradescantia hirsutiflora with glandular hairs on the sepals were not found by D. T. MacRoberts (1980b). In Texas plants with glandular hairs are frequent, and the glandular hairs may be numerous and conspicuous. These plants, which have been referred to T. bracteata by MacRoberts, need to be investigated further. I have also seen three sheets of T. hirsutiflora from Louisiana and one from Mississippi that have a few inconspicuous glandular hairs among the numerous longer, eglandular ones.
The following hybrids are known: Tradescantia hirsutiflora × T. occidentalis, from Alabama, Louisiana; T. hirsutiflora × T. ohiensis, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina; T. hirsutiflora × T. paludosa, Arkansas, Louisiana; and T. hirsutiflora × T. roseolens, Florida.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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