Native to the southeast. Found in dry woods, rock outcroppings. Alabama to Texas.
Growth Habit: Forb/herb
“Tradescantia or spiderworts are quite common, easy to identify and often cultivated. They have slender, grasslike leaves with bases sheathing the stem. Flowers are terminal clusters subtended by a leaflike bract. The flowers consist of three green sepals, three white, pink, or blue petals, six stamens supported on hairy filaments, and a single, three-parted pistil. Some have observed that in the sun the flowers, which open in the early morning appear to melt leaving a drop of colored liquid. I have not seen that. They do only last a day, however (they are also called dayflower) and are usually spent by late afternoon.
This plant and many others of its kind are scattered in one section of my yard in Bayou George, FL. They bloom from March throughout the summer here in the panhandle.