Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia paludosa |
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inchplant, wandering-jew |
confederate spiderwort |
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Habit | Herbs, decumbent. | Herbs, erect, ascending, or occasionally decumbent, rarely rooting at nodes. |
Stems | often much branched distally, 15–60 cm; internodes not at all to slightly glaucous, glabrous. |
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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, forming nearly right angle with stem, straight; blade narrowly oblong-elliptic to linear-lanceolate, 4–11(–20) × 0.4–1.2 cm (distal leaf blades equal to or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), base often constricted, apex acuminate, not at all to slightly glaucous, glabrous. |
Inflorescences | terminal, consisting of pairs of sessile cymes enclosed in sheaths of spathaceous bracts, pedunculate; spathaceous bracts foliaceous, reduced. |
terminal, often axillary; bracts foliaceous. |
Flowers | subsessile; sepals basally connate, 4–5 mm; petals pink, clawed, claws basally connate forming tube; stamens epipetalous; filaments bearded. |
distinctly pedicillate; pedicels 0.8–1.5 cm, glabrous; sepals 0.6–0.8 mm, glabrous or with apical tuft of eglandular hairs; petals distinct, pale blue, ovate, not clawed, 1.3–1.5 cm; stamens free; filaments bearded. |
Capsules | 3-locular; locules 2-seeded. |
2–5 mm. |
Seeds | 2–3 mm. |
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2n | = 12. |
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Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia paludosa |
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Phenology | Flowering fall–winter (Sep–Feb). | Flowering spring (Mar–May), sporadically to early fall. |
Habitat | Hummocks and weedy places | Alluvial bottoms and swamps, forests, roadsides, railroad rights-of-way, fields, ditches, and lawns |
Distribution |
FL; native; tropical America [Introduced in North America] |
AL; AR; FL; LA; MS; TX |
Discussion | Tradescantia paludosa is clearly Anderson and Woodson's weakest species, and D. T. MacRoberts (1979) may be correct in treating it as a variety of Trandescantia ohiensis. In view of its importance as a research tool, however, I prefer to maintain T. paludosa as a species until a more rigorous analysis of its variation is published. Plants of this species do not seem to require a winter dormancy, hence they can be cultivated in greenhouses year-round. (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 | T. ohiensis var. paludosa |
Name authority | Hort ex Bosse: Vollstandiges Handb. Blumengart. 4: 655. (1849) | E. S. Anderson & Woodson: Contr. Arnold Arbor. 9: 83; plate 2, fig. 4; plate 4, fig. 6; plate 11;. (1935) |
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