SOPIDERWORT

SPIDERWORT PLANT GROWING IN DITCH ON S. TENTH ST.

LILY-LIKE LEAVES, PINK TO PURPLE THREE-PETALED FLOWERS 

Friday,  8:30 AM.  63 degrees F, wind ENE, light to moderate.  The sky is overcast and it is foggy and misty, and we have had a trace of rain.  The humidity is 97% and the barometer is rising, currently at 29.93".
   Spiderwort, in the genus Tradescantia, that pictured probably being the species ohiensis, is not rare, but niether do I find it very common.  This species is native to the northeastern US and is found mostly in wet sandy areas.  The plant is very robust, with lily-like leaves (it is a monocotyledon, as are the grasses and other plants with simple, parallel-veined leaves).  Most folks are familiar with the house-plant called spiderwort, in the same genus.  Spiderworts are in the spiderwort family, the Commelinaceae.  Most plants in the family are tropical, but the genus Tradescantia is mostly North American and there are several species native to the North American prairie.
   Spiderworts are interesting plants and there are some garden varieties.  I count this plant as a native rather than a garden escape since it has also been found a few miles south of Bayfield between the Sioux and Onion rivers and is so documented in the Freckman herbarium at the UW Stevens Point.    
   The genus Tradescantia is named after John Tradescant, a Seventeenth Century  English royal gardener.  I don't know the derivation of the common name, although I suspect it relates to the appearance of the clusters of  flower buds.  "Wort" simply means plant, or herb, in Old English.  There is some reference to American Indian use of the plant for food and some medicinal uses but little information beyond that.
   All-in-all, the spiderwort is an interesting, rather attractive perennial  wild plant that is not much encountered.