Dayflowers have intensely blue flowers (from which the Japanese make an intensely blue dye) that open from a crescent-shaped spathe and are gone by the middle of the afternoon. Usually only one flower opens in the spathe at a time, but once in a while we see two or even three together.
For a description of the species, see the Commelina communis reference page.
A common weed imported from Asia, probably for its intensely blue flowers. These plants were growing by a wooden fence in Beechview.
For a description of the species, see the Commelina communis reference page.
The three equal petals, dangling buds, and long grassy leaves distinguish this plant from anything else. It is a common garden flower, and in the city is often found as a garden escape, even though it is also native to our area. The flowers bloom in colors ranging from blue through violet to purple. In these pictures, the blue flowers were growing in the hamlet of Woodville in Scott Township; the purple ones were growing on the grounds of Fallingwater in Mill Run.
For a description of the species, see the Tradescantia virginiana reference page.
Two close-up pictures of the same plant growing beside a street in Beechview. The deep violet, or “rich purplish-blue” as Gray describes it, is very hard to capture with a digital camera, which always seems to want to make the petals much bluer than they are; old Pa Pitt worked hard in the GIMP to match the color of the living flower.
We have seen Spiderworts before (ten years ago!), and we’ll repeat what we said then:
A native plant that is perhaps even more common in gardens than in the wild; the purple to blue flowers with three equal petals and the linear, almost grasslike leaves are distinctive. The closest common relatives in our area, the Dayflowers, have three unequal petals and much shorter leaves. Like Dayflowers, these bloom in the morning and disappear by the middle of the afternoon.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
TRADESCÁNTIA [Rupp.] L. SPIDERWORT. Flowers regular. Sepals herbaceous. Petals all alike, ovate, sessile. Stamens all fertile; filaments bearded. Capsule 2-4-celled, the cells 1-2-seeded — Perennials. Stems mucilaginous, mostly upright, nearly simple, leafy. Leaves keeled. Flowers ephemeral, in umbeled clusters, axillary and terminal, produced through the summer; floral leaves nearly like the others. (Named for the elder Tradescant, gardener to Charles the First of England.)
T. virginiàna L. Green; leaves flat, linear or lance-linear, the upper moге or less pubescent; bracts leaf-like, elongated, usually ascending; pedicels and sepals villous, the latter about 1.6 cm. long; petals rich purplish-blue, 1.6-2 cm. long — Alluvial soil, Ct. to Pa. and S. C.: also introd. northw.
A native plant that is perhaps even more common in gardens than in the wild; the purple to blue flowers with three equal petals and the linear, almost grasslike leaves are distinctive. The closest common relatives in our area, the Dayflowers, have three unequal petals and much shorter leaves. Like Dayflowers, these bloom in the morning and disappear by the middle of the afternoon. This plant was part of a colony growing beside a railroad in Oakmont, where it was blooming in late May.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
TRADESCÁNTIA [Rupp.] L. SPIDERWORT. Flowers regular. Sepals herbaceous. Petals all alike, ovate, sessile. Stamens all fertile; filaments bearded. Capsule 2-4-celled, the cells 1-2-seeded — Perennials. Stems mucilaginous, mostly upright, nearly simple, leafy. Leaves keeled. Flowers ephemeral, in umbeled clusters, axillary and terminal, produced through the summer; floral leaves nearly like the others. (Named for the elder Tradescant, gardener to Charles the First of England.)
T. virginiàna L. Green; leaves flat, linear or lance-linear, the upper moге or less pubescent; bracts loaf-like, elongated, usually ascending; pedicels and sepals villous, the latter about 1.6 cm. long; petals rich purplish-blue, 1.6-2 cm. long — Alluvial soil, Ct. to Pa. and S. C.: also introd. northw.
