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inchplant, wandering-jew

bract spiderwort, long-bract spiderwort

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

not brownish-tomentose.

Stems

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

Leaves

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.

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, consisting of pairs of sessile cymes enclosed in sheaths of spathaceous bracts, pedunculate; spathaceous bracts foliaceous, reduced.

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

bracts foliaceous, glabrous, or rarely sheath puberulent.

Flowers

subsessile;

sepals basally connate, 4–5 mm;

petals pink, clawed, claws basally connate forming tube;

stamens epipetalous;

filaments 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-locular;

locules 2-seeded.

5–6 mm.

Seeds

2–3 mm;

hilum as long as seed.

2n

= 12, 24.

Tradescantia zebrina

Tradescantia bracteata

Phenology Flowering fall–winter (Sep–Feb). Flowering spring (Apr–Jun).
Habitat Hummocks and weedy places Prairies, spreading to thickets, roadsides, and railroad rights-of-way
Distribution
from FNA
FL; native; tropical America [Introduced in North America]
[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. pallida, T. paludosa, T. pedicellata, T. pinetorum, T. reverchonii, T. roseolens, T. spathacea, T. subacaulis, T. subaspera, T. tharpii, T. virginiana, T. wrightii
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 Zebrina pendula
Name authority Hort ex Bosse: Vollstandiges Handb. Blumengart. 4: 655. (1849) Small: in N. L. Britton and A. Brown, An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States 3: 510. (1898)
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