TRADESCANT1A MONTANA Shuttl.
Tradescanda mournful Shuttl.; Britton, in Britton & Brown, Ill. Fl. I : 377. 1896.
Perennial by a cluster of elongated roots, slender, nearly glabrous, dark green. Stems usually solitary, erect, 3-7 dm. tall, straight or nearly so, simple or sparingly branched above; leaves narrowly lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 1-3 dm. long, usually minutely pubescent, or rarely glabrate, acuminate, flat; sheaths 1-2 cm. long, ciliate ; involucre of two lanceolate leaf-like bracts, one of which is at least one-half smaller than the other ; flowers blue, small, 2-2.5 cm. broad ; pedicels slender, 1-1.2 cm. long; sepals ovate or oblong,sometimes apparently lanceolate by the invo lute edges, 5-6 mm. long, pilose or villous, obtuse, hooded, often minutely glandular ; petals sub-orbicular or orbicular-ovate ; cap sule oblong or oval, 5-6 mm. long, glabrous, or pilose especially above the middle; seeds oval-oblong, 3 mm. long, irregularly
tuberculate and coarsely granular.
Sandy hillsides in the Allegheny mountains from Virginia to North Carolina and South Carolina ; ascends to 1200 meters in North Carolina. June to August.
Virginia : Britton, Small ; North Carolina : Rugel, Porter, Small & Heller; South Carolina : Small.
Ti-adescanda montana appears to be strictly Alleghenian in its distribution. It is more closely related to 7 radescanti a pilosa than to any other species, but it is smaller throughout, with a straight or almost straight stern, narrower and thinner leaves and usually less pubescence.
Last July I found this plant abundantly on Paris mountain, near Greenville, South Carolina. It grew on the upper slopes and top of the mountain, chiefly in thickets. The species is apparently a late bloomer ; although the season was far advanced the plants had not produced any capsules.