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Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart' (Purple Spiderwort) - This popular trailing house plant is also a durable groundcover or accent plant to about 18 inches tall in the garden. It has 2 to 5+ inch long, narrow pointed purple leaves arranged alternately along thick herbaceous segmented stems. The leaves are covered in soft pale hairs and their bases form a sheath around the stems. The three petaled purple-pink flowers with yellow stamens arise among the leaves near the tips of the branches primarily in summer, but can often be seen at other times in frost free gardens.
Plant in light shade or part sun in most any soil type and water regularly to occasionally - surprising drought tolerant for such a tropical looking plant. The leaf color varies with amount of sun and water with the best color in the brightest light. Hardy and evergreen in frost free gardens but will freeze back in colder locations - root hardy to 10°F or less - some claim it will grow as a perennial in USDA Zone 6, where mulching to protect the crown is advantageous. This attractive and unusual colored plant makes a great hanging pot specimen or use as a creeping groundcover with bold color for the sun or shade garden. Some consider this plant from eastern Mexico to be invasive, but we have never seen it get out of hand, and it has behaved quite well in our garden for over 25 years. The stems are a bit fragile so break if brushed against or walked on but the plant grows rapidly, so covers up such damage in short order. Though not particularly dangerous, the juices of this plant have a skin irritant that can cause a rash or blisters and has been used in the past to cosmetically redden a person's cheeks.
Tradescantia pallida is native to a wide area of Mexico from Tamaulipas east to Veracruz and south to the Yucatan peninsula. The name Tradescantia honors John Tradescant the elder (1570s-1638), an 17th century English naturalist, who was a collector and traveler and the gardener to the Earl of Salisbury and who traveled to Virginia in 1617. The species name pallida is from the Latin word 'pallidus' meaning "pallid" or "pale" in reference to the pale flowers of the species compared to other Tradescantia. This plant was originally described as Setcreasea pallida in 1911 by the American botanist Joseph Nelson Rose, famous for his work in Mexico on the Cactaceae. The cultivar name 'Purpurea' is a synonym and it also goes by the common names Purple Secretia and Purple Queen. We have grown this plant since 1999.
Information displayed on this page about Tradescantia pallida 'Purple Heart' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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