Purple heart
Tradescantia pallida (Rose) D.R.Hunt
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 30 cm
- wide
- 46 cm
Commelinaceae
Also called Purple Heart, Purple queen, Purpleheart, Purplequeen, Wandering Jew
Formerly Setcreasea jaumavensis, Setcreasea lanceolata, Setcreasea pallida, Setcreasea purpurea, and 1 more
When it flowers
Flowers all year in the tropics.
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
- SubshrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Seasonally dry tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- MexicoKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: NC State Extension full, part; Wikipedia full, shade
- Height
- 30 cmRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Spread
- 30 cm to 61 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, not yet checked: its sources are splitTied: no reading has a majority of the 2 sources, so all are kept for a person to settle. Sources differ: NC State Extension medium; Wikipedia low
- Flowers
- Pink, purpleRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -9.5 °C (USDA zone 8b)Read from NC State Extension and Wikipedia, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: NC State Extension -1.1 °C; Wikipedia -17.8 °C
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- niña en barco, Suelda con suelda, Tradescantia púrpura
- Chinese
- 紫鴨跖草, 紫錦草, 紫竹梅
- French
- Misère pourpre
- Portuguese
- Trapoeraba-roxa, coração-roxo
- Japanese
- ムラサキゴテン, 紫御殿, ムラサキオオツユクサ
- Hebrew
- היהודי הנודד
- Russian
- Традесканция бледная
- Chinese (China)
- 紫竹梅, 紫鸭跖草, 紫叶鸭跖草
- Swedish
- purpurblad
- Danish
- Purpurblad
- Thai
- หัวใจสีม่วง
- Afrikaans
- Pienkblom- Wandelende Jood
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-24, CC BY 4.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Tradescantia pallida (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.