East Tennessee Wildflower Of The Day: Spiderwort
By Denese. Filed in East TN |
Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana)
Spiderwort is another dainty wildflower that can be found in dappled woods, meadows and thickets in most of Eastern North America, from Maine to Minnesota and southward.
Spiderwort grows to a height of 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet with blue, purple or white flowers in spring and summer. For it’s height, spiderwort’s flowers are very small –only 1 to 2 inches across. The leaves are long, pointy and folded lengthwise, forming a channel.
Spiderwort is a perennial but also self-seeds abundantly –here in the holler they come up everywhere and they’re very hard to kill (not that I try to!).
These spiderworts grow in almost full shade and the flowers are a darker blue than the ones I have in the sun. I’ve also noticed that the shaded plants don’t have as many stalks as the ones in the sun do.
White spiderwort is rare in the wild -the flowers on this plant are almost white.
Spiderwort may be seen in The Great Smoky Mountains on Ace Gap Trail (Cades Cove/Rich Mountain Rd. area).
Learn More About Spiderwort
USDA Plants Profile: Tradescantia virginiana L. Virginia spiderwort
Native Plant Database: Tradescantia virginiana L. Virginia spiderwort, Spider lily
Plants For A Future Database: Tradescantia virginiana – L. Spiderwort –propagation and cultivation info
Where To Buy Spiderwort
Chiltern Seeds –United Kingdom
Blessings,
Denese
Tags: nature, photos, summer, wildflowers
Tuesday, June 2nd 2009 at 9:09 pm
I think I’ve got these in my shade garden. The flowers are bigger though, but they do seed well. I just gathered a whole bunch of black seeds from the one plant that I have. This is the third year, and so far no other plants. I’m going to try to start these plants myself. It might be because we mulch heavily every year.
Tuesday, June 9th 2009 at 1:14 pm
I don’t mulch mine but they do get a layer of leaves in the fall (off the trees). It might be a type of seed that needs sunlight to germinate.