264 COMMELINACEAE (SPIDERWORT FAMILY) 



COMMELINAC.EAE (SPIDERWORT FAMILY) 



Herbs, with fibrous or sometimes thickened roots, jointed and often branching 

 leafy stems, and chiefly perfect and (}-androus often irregular flowers, with the 

 perianth free from the 2-3-celled ovary, and having a distinct calyx and corolla ; 

 viz., 3 persistent commonly herbaceous sepals, and 3 petals, ephemeral, decay- 

 ing or deciduous. Stamens hypogynous, often some of them sterile ; anthers 

 with 2 separated cells. Style 1 ; stigma undivided. Capsule 2-3-celled, 2-3- 

 valved, loculicidal, 3-several-seeded. Seeds orthotropous. Leaves entire, paral- 

 lel-veined, sheathed at base ; the uppermost often dissimilar and forming a kind 

 of spathe. Chiefly tropical. 



1. Tradescantia. Bracts leaf-like or small and scarious. Petals equal. Perfect stamens 6; 



filaments bearded. 



2. Commelina. Cyme sessile within a cordate or connate bract (spathe). Petals unequal. 



Perfect stamens 3; filaments naked. 



1. TRADESCANTIA [Rupp.] L. SPIDERWORT 



Flowers regular. Sepals herbaceous. Petals all alike, ovate, sessile. Sta- 

 mens all fertile ; filaments bearded. Capsule 2-3-celled, the cells 1-2-seeded. 

 Perennials. Stems mucilaginous, mostly upright, nearly simple, leafy. Leaves 

 keeled. Flowers ephemeral, in umbeled clusters, axillary and terminal, pro- 

 duced through the summer ; floral leaves nearly like the others. (Named for 

 the elder Tradescant, gardener to Charles the First of England.) 



Umbels long-peduncled ; bracts short, subscarious 1. T. rosea. 



Umbels sessile or nearly so, much surpassed by the leaf-like bracts. 



Dwarf, rarely over 1 dm. high, villous ; pedicels 2-6 cm. long, thread-like . 2. T. brevicaulis. 

 Taller, 3-8 dm. high. 



Stem geniculate, the subsessile umbels axillary as well as terminal . . 3. T. pilosa. 

 Stem straight, simple or branched ; umbels terminal. 



Sepals entirely glabrous, or one or more of them with a tuft of hairs 



near the involute slightly hooded apex 4. T. rejletca. 



Sepals villous with non-glandular hairs 5. T. virginiana. 



Sepals glandular-villous. 



Bracts broader than the leaves 6. T. bracteata. 



Bracts not broader than the leaves 1. T. occidentalis. 



1. T. rbsea Vent. Small, slender (1.5-4 dm. high), smooth, erect from a 

 running rootstock ; leaves linear, grass-like, 1-5 (rarely as much as 11) mm. 

 broad. Sandy woods, Md. to Fla., w. to Mo. and "Tex." 



2. T. brevicaulis Raf. Often stemless or nearly so, very hairy ; roots a clus- 

 ter of dark more or less thickened fibers ; leaves lance-linear ; sepals ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, 1-1.5 cm. long, villous; petals large, purplish-blue or more often rose- 

 colored. (T. virginica, var. villosa Wats.) Moist sandy soil, centr. Ind. (H. 

 H. Bartlett} to Ky., Tex., and Kan. Apr., May. 



3. T. pilbsa Lehm. Tall, stout, 4-7 dm. high, zigzag ; leaves large, flat, often 

 3-4 cm. wide, dark green above, finely pubescent on both surfaces, rarely sub- 

 glabrous ; sepals pilose or smoothish, ovate-oblong, 6-9 mm. long; petals blue. 

 (T.flexuosa Raf.) Woods and shaded banks of streams, Pa. to Mo. and Ga. 



4. T. reflSxa Raf. Slender, glabrous or nearly so, glaucous; leaves narrow, 

 linear-attenuate from a lanceolate base, strongly involute ; umbels terminal on 

 the stems and branches, many-flowered ; narrow bracts and glabrous pedicels 

 soon deflexed; sepals ovate-lanceolate, 8-13 mm. long, glabrous except at the 

 often tufted tip; petals blue, 10-14 mm. long. Wet places, O. to Mich., 

 Minn., Kan., Tex., and S. C. 



5. T. virginiana L. Green ; leaves flat, linear or lance-linear, the upper 

 more or less pubescent ; bracts leaf-like, elongated, usually ascending; pedicels 

 and sepals villous, the latter about 1.5 cm. long; petals rich purplish-blue, 

 1.6-2 cm. long. Alluvial soil, Ct. to Pa. and S. C. ; also introd. northw. 



