Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia subaspera |
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inchplant, wandering-jew |
zigzag spiderwort |
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Habit | Herbs, decumbent. | Herbs, erect or ascending, rarely rooting at nodes. |
Stems | often flexuous, 30–100 cm; internodes pilose to glabrescent. |
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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, at least proximal ones distinctly petiolate; blade dark green, lanceolate-oblong to lanceolate-elliptic or lanceolate, 6–30 × (0.4–)1–6.5 cm (distal leaf blades wider than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), apex acuminate, glabrous to puberulent. |
Inflorescences | terminal, consisting of pairs of sessile cymes enclosed in sheaths of spathaceous bracts, pedunculate; spathaceous bracts foliaceous, reduced. |
terminal, usually also axillary at distal nodes, axillary inflorescences sessile or variously pedunculate; 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 1–1.7 cm, pilose to glabrous; sepals 4–10 mm, puberulent with glandular, eglandular, or mixture of glandular, eglandular hairs, occasionally glabrous; petals distinct, light to dark blue, rarely white, broadly ovate, not clawed, 10–15 mm; stamens free; filaments bearded. |
Capsules | 3-locular; locules 2-seeded. |
4–6 mm. |
Seeds | 2–3 mm. |
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2n | = 12, 24. |
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Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia subaspera |
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Phenology | Flowering fall–winter (Sep–Feb). | Flowering spring–fall (May–Sep). |
Habitat | Hummocks and weedy places | Rich woods along streams and on slopes and bluffs, less commonly dry woods, roadsides, fields, or along railroads |
Distribution |
FL; native; tropical America [Introduced in North America] |
AL; AR; DC; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MO; MS; NC; OH; SC; TN; VA; WV
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Discussion | Two varieties are recognized by E. Anderson and R. E. Woodson Jr. (1935): Tradescantia subaspera var. subaspera, with the stems more or less conspicuously flexuous distally and the distal lateral inflorescences sessile (western extensions of Appalachian Plateau from western West Virginia, central Kentucky, and Tennessee to Illinois and Missouri); and T. subaspera var. montana (Britton) Anderson & Woodson, with the stems straight or only slightly flexuous distally and all the lateral inflorescences pedunculate (southern Appalachians from southwestern Virginia to northern Alabama and Georgia, also the coastal plain from northern Florida to Louisiana). Many specimens can only be determined by their locale, so I do not find the separation of the two varieties very meaningful. The distribution record for the District of Columbia is based on a specimen believed to be a garden escape; that from southern Florida on a specimen cited by C. Sinclair (1967). (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. pilosa |
Name authority | Hort ex Bosse: Vollstandiges Handb. Blumengart. 4: 655. (1849) | Ker Gawler: Bot. Mag. 39: plate 1597. (1814) |
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