PRAIRIE SPIDERWORT
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| File Size: 77 KB |
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Tradescantia occidentalis (Britton ) Smyth
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| Russell County, Kansas |
| Perennial |
| Height: 8-20 inches |
| Family: Commelinaceae - Spiderwort Family |
| Flowering Period: May, June, July, August |
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| Stems: | | Erect, slender, straight, often branched, glabrous, waxy; somewhat succulent; 2-6 nodes, internodes to 10 inches long. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, firm, linear-lanceolate, 3.5 to 12 inches long and .15 to .5 inch wide, glabrous, waxy, often folded. | | Inflorescences: | | Cyme, umbel-like, few to many-flowered, teminal on stem or branches; bracts leafy, glabrous, 2 to 8 inches long. | | Flowers: | | Sepals 3, elliptic, pointed, glandular-hairy, margins sometimes purplish; petals 3, broadly egg-shaped, bright blue to rose or magenta; stamens 6, filaments bearded; stalks up to 4/5 inch long, sparsely glandular-hairy. | | Fruits: | | Capsule, nearly spherical to oblong-ellipsoid,; seeds 2-6, compressed, gray. | | Habitat: | | Prairies and disturbed sites; dry sandy or rocky soils. | | Distribution: | | Principally in the west 3/4 of Kansas. | | Uses: | | Several Native American tribes used the young shoots of prairie spiderwort as a food source. | | Comments: | | Three other spiderworts are observed in Kansas: common spiderwort , bracted spiderwort , and Tharps' spiderwort . |
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| Prairie spiderwort inflorescence |  | | 71 KB | | Russell County, Kansas |
| | Prairie spiderwort flower |  | | 59 KB | | Russell County, Kansas |
| | Prairie spiderwort |  | | 166 KB | | Russell County, Kansas |
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| | Prairie spiderwort |  | | 69 KB | | Barber County, Kansas |
| | Prairie spiderwort |  | | 129 KB | | Barber County, Kansas |
| | Prairie spiderwort |  | | 53 KB | | McPherson County, Kansas |
| | Prairie spiderwort flower |  | | 54 KB | | Russell County, Kansas |
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