View source for Phil Bendle Collection:Tradescantia virginiana (Virginia spiderwort)

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'''Kingdom:''' Plantae<br />
'''(unranked):''' Angiosperms<br />
'''(unranked):''' Monocots<br />
'''(unranked)''': Commelinids<br />
'''Order:''' Commelinales<br />
'''Family:''' Commelinaceae<br />
'''Subfamily:''' Commelinoideae<br />
'''Tribe:''' Tradescantieae<br />
'''Subtribe:''' Tradescantiinae<br />
'''Genus''': Tradescantia<br />
'''Species''': Tradescantia virginiana<br />
'''Synonym:''' Tradescantia virginica.<br />
'''Common names''': Virginia spiderwort, Lady's Tears, Spiderwort, Spider lily, Common spiderwort, Dayflower, Flower-of-a-day, Job’s tears, snake-grass, spider-lily, Trinity, Trinity-lily, Widow’s-tears

Tradescantia virginiana is a large, perennial, herbaceous, clump-forming plant that is native to North America. It was introduced to New Zealand as a garden plant and is now fully naturalised.<br />
It has narrow, arching, bright-green, iris-like leaves on tubular stems that can be 0.5-1m tall. The leaves themselves are up to 30 cm long and 25 mm wide and are folded lengthwise forming a groove. If the stems are cut, a viscous stem secretion is released which becomes threadlike and silky upon hardening (like a spider's web), hence the common name.<br />
It has three-petaled, hermaphrodite flowers which are up to 5 cm across. They are blue-violet in colour but occasionally are white. They have bright, yellow stamens. The flowers are borne in summer on a terminal cluster containing numerous flower buds. The flowers open only in the morning and later in the day they wilt and turn to a jelly-like fluid.

It can self-sow and become a nuisance in the garden and occasionally will escape into the wild. Tradescantia virginiana will hybridise in just about any combination.

[[File:Virginia spiderwort 2.jpg|frameless|upright 2.25]]  

[[File:Virginia spiderwort.jpg|frameless|upright 2.25]]

[[File:Virginia spiderwort 2 .JPG|frameless|upright 2.25]]<br />


Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information:

[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/%20 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/]

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[[Category:Phil Bendle Collection]]