COMMELINACEAE

Tradescantia gigantea

Common Name:  Giant Spiderwort

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Tradescantia gigantea habit.jpg (121780 bytes) Tradescantia gigantea flowercloseup.jpg (52940 bytes)
habit--this is a particularly large individual flowers--notice the long purple hairs at the base of each stamen.  How many petals are there?  How many stamens?  Is this a monocot or a dicot?

Tradescantia gigantea inflorescence2.jpg (44148 bytes)

inflorescence--notice how hairy the sepals and pedicels are leaf, showing clasping leaf base
Tradescantia gigantea leaves.jpg (52408 bytes)
leaf venation--what kind of venation is this? Corolla color can vary in Tradescantia gigantea, even within the same population.   These petals are purplish...
 
...and rarely you can even find white petals!