Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia spathacea |
|
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inchplant, wandering-jew |
boat-lily, moses-in-the-cradle, oyster-plant |
|
Habit | Herbs, decumbent. | Herbs, erect or ascending, rarely rooting at nodes. |
Stems | unbranched, short. |
|
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; blade usually abaxially purple, adaxially green, strap-shaped, to 35 × 5 cm (distal leaf blades wider or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), leathery, succulent, glabrous. |
Inflorescences | terminal, consisting of pairs of sessile cymes enclosed in sheaths of spathaceous bracts, pedunculate; spathaceous bracts foliaceous, reduced. |
axillary, sessile, or pedunculate in axils well below shoot apex, cymes enclosed in pairs of boat-shaped spathes. |
Flowers | subsessile; sepals basally connate, 4–5 mm; petals pink, clawed, claws basally connate forming tube; stamens epipetalous; filaments bearded. |
distinctly pedicillate; pedicels glabrous; sepals distinct, white, 3–6 mm, glabrous; petals distinct, white, ovate, not clawed; stamens free; filaments bearded. |
Capsules | 3-locular; locules 2-seeded. |
3- or (by abortion) 2-locular, 3–4 mm. |
Seeds | 1 per locule, 3–4 mm. |
|
2n | = 12 (Belize). |
|
Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia spathacea |
|
Phenology | Flowering fall–winter (Sep–Feb). | Flowering winter (Jan). |
Habitat | Hummocks and weedy places | Occasionally escaped to hammocks and weedy places |
Distribution |
FL; native; tropical America [Introduced in North America] |
FL; Mexico; Central America; West Indies [Introduced in North America] |
Discussion | Tradescantia spathacea is native to southern Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 22. | FNA vol. 22. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Zebrina pendula | Rhoeo discolor, Rhoeo spathacea |
Name authority | Hort ex Bosse: Vollstandiges Handb. Blumengart. 4: 655. (1849) | Swartz: Prodr. 57. (1788) |
Web links |