Rio Spiderwort
Tradescantia fluminensis Vell.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 19 cm
- wide
- 42 cm
Commelinaceae
Also called Tradescantia, Wandering Willie, Wandering Trad, Small-leaf spiderwort, Small-leaf Spiderwort
Formerly Tradescantia albiflora, Tradescantia albovittata
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Hemiepiphytic subshrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Wet tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- SE. & S. Brazil to N. ArgentinaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 15 cm to 23 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 23 cm to 61 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- WhiteRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -6.7 °C (USDA zone 9a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Japanese
- トキワツユクサ, オオトキワツユクサ
- French
- Éphémère de Rio
- Portuguese
- Erva-da-fortuna, Tradescância
- Chinese
- 巴西水竹葉, 水竹草, 斑葉水竹草
- Finnish
- rionjuoru
- Dutch
- Vaderplant
- Russian
- Традесканция приречная, Традексанция приречная
- Czech
- podeňka světlá
- Spanish
- Oreja de gato, Santa Lucía blanca, Amor de hombre
- Catalan
- Tradescància
- Chinese (China)
- 白花紫露草
- Swedish
- vandrande jude, skvallerreva
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY 2.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Tradescantia fluminensis (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.