Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia gigantea |
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inchplant, wandering-jew |
giant spiderwort |
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Habit | Herbs, decumbent. | Herbs, erect or ascending, rarely rooting at nodes. |
Stems | 16–100 cm; proximal internodes glabrous, distal glabrous to densely eglandular-puberulent. |
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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. |
spirally arranged, sessile (with sheaths ± saccate); blade linear-lanceolate, 10–40 × 0.5–2.5 cm (distal leaf blades equal to or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), glaucous, glabrous or adaxially densely and minutely eglandular-velvety. |
Inflorescences | terminal, consisting of pairs of sessile cymes enclosed in sheaths of spathaceous bracts, pedunculate; spathaceous bracts foliaceous, reduced. |
terminal, axillary; bracts reduced, bases saccate, minutely velvety. |
Flowers | subsessile; sepals basally connate, 4–5 mm; petals pink, clawed, claws basally connate forming tube; stamens epipetalous; filaments bearded. |
distinctly pedicillate; pedicels 0.9–2.8 cm, densely eglandular-puberulent; sepals 5–13 mm, densely, minutely eglandular-puberulent; petals distinct, magenta to blue or violet, broadly obovate, not clawed, 1.5–1.8 cm; stamens free; filaments bearded. |
Capsules | 3-locular; locules 2-seeded. |
6–7 mm. |
Seeds | 2–3 mm. |
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2n | = 12. |
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Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia gigantea |
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Phenology | Flowering fall–winter (Sep–Feb). | Flowering spring (Mar–May). |
Habitat | Hummocks and weedy places | Rocky limestone areas, pasturelands, weedy lots, roadsides, and along railroad tracks |
Distribution |
FL; native; tropical America [Introduced in North America] |
LA; TX |
Discussion | Plants of Tradescantia gigantea growing around Ruston, Louisiana may have originated from cultivated plants. They hybridize with T. ohiensis there. (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 | Zebrina pendula | |
Name authority | Hort ex Bosse: Vollstandiges Handb. Blumengart. 4: 655. (1849) | Rose: Contributions from the U. S. National Herbarium 5: 205. (1899) |
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