Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia tharpii |
|
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inchplant, wandering-jew |
Tharp's spiderwort |
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Habit | Herbs, decumbent. | Herbs, erect or ascending, rarely rooting at nodes. |
Stems | absent or 2–7 cm in flower, to 20 cm in fruit, shaggy pilose to villous. |
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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. |
blade green, linear-lanceolate, 4–30 × 0.9–2.5 cm (distal leaf blades equal to or narrower than sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened), margins frequently clear or edged with rose, laxly and irregularly pilose or villous. |
Inflorescences | terminal, consisting of pairs of sessile cymes enclosed in sheaths of spathaceous bracts, pedunculate; spathaceous bracts foliaceous, reduced. |
terminal, solitary; bracts foliaceous, well developed, not saccate, sparsely to densely pilose. |
Flowers | subsessile; sepals basally connate, 4–5 mm; petals pink, clawed, claws basally connate forming tube; stamens epipetalous; filaments bearded. |
distinctly pedicillate; pedicels 4–6 cm, laxly pilose; sepals usually purple or rose-colored (rarely pale green), not inflated, 1.2–1.6 cm, uniformly eglandular-pilose; petals distinct, deep rose or purple, or frequently blue, broadly ovate, not clawed, 1.8–2.2 cm; stamens free; filaments bearded. |
Capsules | 3-locular; locules 2-seeded. |
5–7 mm. |
Seeds | 2–3 mm. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Tradescantia zebrina |
Tradescantia tharpii |
|
Phenology | Flowering fall–winter (Sep–Feb). | Flowering spring. |
Habitat | Hummocks and weedy places | Clay soils of rocky prairies and open woodlands |
Distribution |
FL; native; tropical America [Introduced in North America] |
KS; MO; OK; TX
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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) | E. S. Anderson & Woodson: Contr. Arnold Arbor. 9: 70; plate 4, fig. 9; plate 9; map 7. (1935) |
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