TRADESCANTIA PILOSA J. G. C. Lehm.
Tradescantia pzlosa J. G. C. Lehm. Nov. Act. Leop. 14 : Part 2, 822. pl. Is. 1828.
Tradescantia fe-ruosa Raf. Atl. Journ. 15o. 1832.
Tradescantia aiillaris Raf. New Fl. Part 2, 87. 1836. Tradescantla axtilaris var. flexuosa Raf. New Fl. Part 2, 87. 1836.
Tradescantia Virginica var. ilexzrosa S. Wats. ; Wats & Coult. in A. Gray, Man. Ed. 6 : 539. 189o.
Perennial, stout, pilose and more or less puberulent, dull green ; stems erect or ascending, 4-8 dm. tall, flexuous, often puberulent, or glabrate, leafy to the top, simple or sparingly branched ; leaves lanceolate or sometimes rather narrowly lanceolate, 1-2.5 dm. long, acuminate, dark green above, paler beneath ; sheaths 1-1.5 cm. long, ciliate, inconspicuously ribbed ; involucre of 2-3 bracts simi lar to the leaves, one about twice as long as the others ; pedicels normally slender, 1.5-2 cm. long, villdus-pilose, or often glabrate ; flowers pale blue or deep blue, large, 2.5-3 cm. broad, the cymes usually crowded at maturity ; sepals ovate or oblong, about 7 mm.
long, apparently lanceolate by their involute edges, two strongly hooded, the third not hooded, mostly villous-pilose ; petals ovate orbicular, obtuse ; capsule globose-oblong, 5 mm. long, constricted at the middle, pilose at the summit ; seeds oblong or ovoid, 2-3 mm. long.
Thickets and shady hillsides, Ohio to Missouri, south to West Virginia and Tennessee. Naturalized about Bartram's Garden, Philadelphia. May to August.
In size, habit and leaf form, especially in the breadth of the leaves, this is our most conspicuous Tradescantia; the lanceolate leaves with their pilose pubescence, the normally flexuous stems and the usually axillary flower-clusters readily separate it from all other species. In range it is campestrian with Kentucky and Tennessee as its center of distribution; it is unknown west of the Mississippi river except in eastern Missouri.