Tradescantia L.
Perennial herbs. Stems erect or prostrate, mucilaginous, simple or diffusely branched, leafy. Flowers solitary or few to many, pedicellate, in axillary and terminal, simple or umbellate cymes, with 1-3 leaf-like bracts. Sepals free, green or coloured. Petals free, blue, red or white. Stamens 6, all fertile. Ovules 2. Capsule 3-locular, 6-seeded. Spp. c. 60, of tropical and N. America. Adventive sp. 1.
T. virginiana L. has been collected as a persistent garden outcast on waste land in Christchurch - A. J. Healy 55/332, 19.12.1955 (CHR 92092 and 92093). It differs from the common T. fluminensis in its erect stems and much larger, linear leaves, 15-40 cm long. The flowers are usually violet-purple but Healy (T.R.S.N.Z. 85, 1958, 547) noted that the white form also occurred as a garden outcast. (N. America)
