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Commelinaceae
Spiderwort Family
By: George
Rogers
A
medium-sized family of about 35 genera and 500 species in warm climates (BA1).
Plants herbaceous, often semisucculent, with alternate, strap-shaped,
often-striped leaves, these frequently with purple coloration, especially on the
undersides. Flowers enclosed in boat-shaped spathe, delicate, with 3 sepals and
3, usually purplish, bluish, or white petals, and 6 stamens having fuzzy
filaments. Sap often irritating.
Key to
Important Commelinaceae Cultivated in South Florida
1. Leaves
puckered…Seersucker Plant (Geogenanthus undatus)
1. Leaves
smooth or longitudinally ribbed…2
2. Plants
with erect stems over a foot tall; leaves scattered along stem; flowers
blue…Blue Ginger (Dichorisandra species)
2. Plants
with leaves either in a rosette or on horizontal or dangling stems; flowers
white or purplish…3
3. Leaves
scattered along stem…4
3. Leaves
in rosettes…5
4. Leaf
blades solid purple, usually > 3” long…Purple Heart, Setcreasea (Tradescantia
pallida)
4. Leaf
blades striped, purple on the undersides, usually < 3” long…Zebrina (Tradescantia
zebrina)
5. Leaf
rosettes mostly green, the leaves tough but not succulent; flowers rising from
rosettes in arching wands…Callisia (Callisia fragrans)
5. Leaf
rosettes largely purplish (at least on the undersides); leave blades
semisucculent; flowers nestled into boat-shaped bracts…Oyster Plant, Rhoeo (Tradescantia
spathacea)
Other plants in the manual include:
Callisia repens
Commelina diffusa
Tradescantia fluminensis
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