100 More species #15: Spiderwort

[urbpan]

Spiderwort Tradescantia virginiana

Last year when I did the first 100 species in my yard, I skipped past this one (despite the kind readers of this journal identifying it for me). I simply assumed it was "just" a cultivated flower, and that it wasn't interesting as a member of the community of organisms in my yard. Since then I have come to learn that not only is it a native plant, it will run roughshod around the yard if you let it, which we kind of did.

It's not a wildflower as such: it certainly owes its ubiquity in part to the cultivated plant trade. Ours may be a hybrid developed for extra hardiness, or color variety, or some other attribute. We've dug out a bunch of them, transplanted some to along the fence lines, and basically gotten over any shyness about killing them. Despite being native, it acts like any invasive Eurasian plant--there's even a few growing from the sidewalk cracks down the street.


I'm happy to have it in some places in the yard, but I'm also happy to get rid of it in favor of variety and biodiversity in our little corner of the world. (Notice it keeping company with Japanese knotweed, in the bucket on it's way out of our land).

Comments

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

I thought that it was trillium. Still pretty though, despite its invasive nature.

(Really young knotweed tastes a bit like rhubarb.)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

A little bit. That swamp mud aftertaste does not agree with me.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

I've only ever baked it into bread, and that was something like 25 years ago....

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

*laugh* I actually transplanted some of that from a patch in my front yard to my back earlier this year (where it's very very happy.) It's not as brutally thuggin' in my area--climate may not agree with it quite so much, and I've never found it seeding anywhere. But when it's happy, it can sure go!

There's another species, Ohio spiderwort, T. ohiensis, that I just picked up for my yard--it's a taller, narrower clumper, and given that it's endangered in part of its range, may not be quite so aggressive!

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

You may not wish to get rid of ALL of the spiderwort:
The cells of the stamen hairs of some Tradescantia are colored blue, but when exposed to sources of ionizing radiation such as gamma rays, the cells mutate and change color to pink; they are one of the few tissues known to serve as an effective bioassay for ambient radiation levels.