2019 July Plant of the Month
BWSR Featured Plant Name: Prairie Spiderwort (Tradescantia bracteata) Plant family: Spiderwort (Commelinaceae) Prairie spiderwort has many common names, including cow slobber, day flower, trinity flower and widow’s tears. Trandescantia derives from John Tradescant, gardener for Plant Stats King Charles I of England. STATEWIDE WETLAND The “spider” in INDICATOR “spiderwort” STATUS: FACU
may come PRIMARY USES: from the Pollinators’ food angular leaves’ source, backyard resemblance gardens, treating to spider legs. insect bites It also could refer to the secretion released by cut stems, which becomes threadlike and silky when it hardens. “Wort” Prairie spiderwort is commonly used in native plantings. It flowers from late May through early July. is a variation of an Old English word Photo Credits: Prairie Moon Nursery meaning “root” or “plant.”
Identification Range This compact, clump- leaflike bracts usually are Prairie spiderwort forming native perennial longer, wider and flatter can be found in grows up to 1.5 feet tall. than its leaves. Dense the southwestern From late May through hairs grow along the edges tallgrass prairie early July, flower clusters and base of the bracts. region. Native emerge, usually from the Flower stalks grow up to to the central top of the plant. Plants 1 inch long — erect while United States, it produce one to several blooming, and then curving grows in prairies, blue-to-violet flowers up down after the flower has meadows, fields, to 1.5 inches in diameter. gone to seed. Stiff, linear roadsides and Stamens match petals’ leaves grow 4 to 10 inches railroad rights-of- color, with plumelike, long and up to 0.75-inch way. yellow-tipped hairs. The wide, with a fold along the hair-covered sepals are mid-vein that wraps around Range map source: USDA Natural shorter than the petals. the stem. Stems and leaves Resources Conservation Service Plants Prairie spiderwort’s two may be hairy or smooth. Database
www.bwsr.state.mn.us 1 Planting Recommendations Uses While it prefers moist, areas. Plants can Native acidic soils, prairie spread by self-seeding Americans spiderwort tolerates or by by underground used dry to medium rhizomes. Clumps spiderwort to moisture, well- can be divided. treat insect drained sites, full sun Cutting foliage close bites and and poor soils. It can to the ground after stings; as a tea be planted in native blooming encourages used to treat gardens or naturalized new growth. cramping, stomach and kidney Similar Species ailments; and as a Prairie spiderwort is moist soils. The blue clothing the most widespread tallest of the three, paint. A long- of Minnesota’s it’s hairless, with blooming three naturally flatter, floppier leaves. perennial, it’s occurring species. Western spiderwort an excellent Ohio spiderwort (Tradescantia food source (Tradescantia ocidentalis) has for pollinators. ohiensis), common folded leaves, and Its unique in southeastern stiffer leaves and foliage and Minnesota, prefers bracts. flowers make it an interesting A native perennial, prairie spiderwort grows up to 1.5 tall. It's the most widespread of the three spiderwort addition to species that occur naturally in Minnesota. native gardens and rain gardens.
References Minnesota Wildflowers:https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Plants Database:https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=trbr Missouri Botanical Garden: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org
Developed by Alyssa Alness
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