Tradescantia Hub @TradescantiaHub@scholar.social

I chatted with Jane Perrone about tradescantias for her podcast On The Ledge 😁 The episode just came out today so you can listen here: https://www.janeperrone.com/on-the-ledge/tradescantia, and there's a bonus section for subscribers on her patreon too!

Last week, I made a breakthrough that neatly solved two mysteries in one! It was VERY satisfying. https://tradescantia.uk/article/the-resurrection-of-tradescantia-shadow-hill

#tradescantia #houseplants #plantscience

Leaf samples ready for DNA analysis! 🔬

I recently discovered the oldest source I've found so far for this plant, a herbarium specimen from 1992. Although today it's usually labelled as T. fluminensis, in that specimen it was identified as T. crassula! I increasingly suspect it may be some kind of hybrid, because of how weird and varied its characteristics are... More details in the article: https://tradescantia.uk/article/blushing-bride-and-maidens-blush

Absolutely ridiculous variation in #Tradescantia 'Maiden's Blush' when grown in different conditions - its growth habit changes completely.

On the left was grown indoors in the warm, and on the right was grown in a cold porch. They look like different species!

#houseplants #plantscience #horticulture #botany

Today's the day for #Tradescantia zebrina #flowers apparently! Four different cultivars are going off at once - 'Little Hill', 'Purpusii', 'Purple Joy', and 'Dark Desire'.

The last two actually might be names for the same thing, I hoped that the flowers might help distinguish them but... there's so little flower variation even between definitely-different cultivars of zebrina 😬

#florespondence #plants #houseplants

This week I've been potting up duplicates of pretty much my whole #plantcollection. Backups are required for Plant Heritage collections, so I'll need them in order to be given full National Collection status.

But these will also be used for some science 👨‍🔬 They're all going outside for the summer, so I can see how each #Tradescantia cultivar looks in the more intense sun- and temperature-stress outside. That'll be valuable when it comes to writing descriptions of each cultivar for the checklist.

okay so links don't embed without https, we're learning new things about mastodon

(https://tradescantia.uk)

Hello! #introduction #introductions

I'm Avery, I'm the international cultivar registration authority (ICRA) for the #Tradescantia genus.

I'm responsible for registering new cultivar names and keeping track of old ones. At the moment I'm working on historic research to make an initial checklist of every name that's ever been documented.

I'll be posting updates on here, but the best info will be on tradescantia.uk!

#horticulture
#plants
#botany
#houseplants
#plantscience