Tradescantia
| Tradescantia | |
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| Tradescantia virginiana | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| (unranked): | Commelinids |
| Order: | Commelinales |
| Family: | Commelinaceae |
| Subfamily: | Commelinoideae |
| Tribe: | Tradescantieae |
| Subtribe: | Tradescantiinae |
| Genus: |
Tradescantia Ruppius ex L. |
| Type species | |
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Tradescantia virginiana L. |
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Tradescantia /ˌtrædᵻˈskæntiə/, the spiderworts, is a genus of 75 species of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Commelinaceae, native to the New World from southern Canada south to northern Argentina including the West Indies. They were introduced into Europe as ornamental plants in the seventeenth century and are now grown as such in many parts of the world. Subsequently, some species have become naturalized in various regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and assorted oceanic islands.
Tradescantia are weakly upright to scrambling plants, growing to 30–60 cm tall (0.98–1.97 ft), and are commonly found individually or in clumps in wooded areas and fields. A number of the species flower in the morning and when the sun shines on the flowers in the afternoon they close, but can remain open on cloudy days until evening. The three species of , one native to eastern Mexico, also belong to the Tradescantia genus. Other names used for various species include spider-lily, cradle-lily, oyster-plant and flowering inch plant.
The genus is of interest to cytogenetics because of the evolutionary changes in the structure and number of their chromosomes. In addition to their use as ornamentals, the genus is of economic importance because a number of species have become pests to cultivated crops. They have also been used as bioindicators for the detection of environmental mutagens.
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Wikipedia