Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Tharp's spiderwort

THARP'S SPIDERWORT

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Tradescantia tharpii Anders. & Woods.

Russell County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 1-12 inches

Family: Commelinaceae - Spiderwort Family

Flowering Period: March, April, May

Also Called:

Short-stem spiderwort.

Stems:

Erect, rarely branched, 1 to 4 inches tall when flowering, to 12 inches tall in fruit, soft hairy; nodes 1 or 2; internodes to 3.2 inches long.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, not waxy, linear-lanceolate, 6 to 12 inches long, to 1 inch wide, densely covered with long, soft hairs; margins entire, often rose-purple or translucent.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, umbel-like, many-flowered, terminal; bracts grass-like, to 10 inches long, 1 inch wide, soft hairy.

Flowers:

Stalks 1.5 to 2.5 inches long, soft hairy, rose colored; sepals 3, broadly elliptic, 1/2 to 3/5 inch long, usually rose colored, soft-hairy, tips pointed; corollas about 1 inch wide, purplish blue or deep rose; petals 3, broadly ovate; stamens 6, filaments densely bearded.

Fruits:

Capsules, rounded; seeds oblong, flattened, gray, about 1/10 inch long.

Habitat:

Prairies, hillsides, thickets, and open woods, most abundant on rocky or clay soils.

Distribution:

Principally central of Kansas.

Comments:

Named after Benjamin Tharp, 1885-1964, a botanist at the University of Texas.

Three other spiderworts are observed in Kansas: prairie spiderwort , bracted spiderwort , and common spiderwort .

Tharp's spiderwort petals and sepals