TRADESCANTIA HIRSUTICAULIS n. sp.
Perennial by a cluster of coarse elongated (1-2.5 din.) roots, slender, hirsute throughout with long brownish hairs, or par tially glabrous above, otherwise bright green. Stems several to gether, erect or nearly so, 3-4 dm. tall, leafy throughout, densely hirsute, simple; leaves narrowly linear, 2-3 dm. long, more or less curved, involutely folded, less densely hirsute than the stem ; sheaths rather pale, 1-2.5 cm. long, conspicuously ribbed ; in volucre of two linear very unequal leaf-like bracts which are some what smaller than the stem leaves ; pedicels slender, 2-2.5 cm. long ; flowers purple, large, 2.5-3 cm. broad; sepals variable in the same flower, ovate or lanceolate, 9-15 mm. long, rather villous
and somewhat glandular ; petals suborbicular, broader than long and undulate ; mature capsule not seen.
Sandy places, Georgia to Florida; occurs at 400 meters on Stone Mountain. May to July.
Florida: Chapman, Wood ; Georgia : Stone Mountain, Small. A very distinct and beautiful species related to Tradescantza refiexa but much more slender in habit. Remarkable for the abundant development of brownish hirsute pubescence on the stem, leaves and inflorescence. The flowers are larger and of a deeper blue than those of Tradescantia reflexa.