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Tradescantia spathacea
Also called Moses-in-the-cradle, Oyster-plant, Boat-lily, Oysterplant, Moses In The Basket
In Singapore: Dwarf Boat Lily, Dwarf Moses-in-the-Cradle, Dwarf Variegated Boat Lily, Dwarf Variegated Moses-in-the-Cradle, 紫背万年青, Boat Lily, Oyster Plant, Cradle Lily, Moses-in-the-Cradle, Moses in His Cradle, Moses on a Raft, Moses in the Bulrushes, Men in a Boat, 蚌花, 荷包花, Variegated Boat Lily (Grown in Singapore)
Boatlily is a low, clump-forming perennial with rosettes of glossy purple-backed leaves and small white flowers inside purple boat-shaped bracts. It is grown mainly as a shade-tolerant houseplant or ground cover in warm climates, and does best with bright indirect light and moist, well-drained soil.
Tradescantia spathacea, also called the oyster plant, boatlily or 'Moses-in-the-cradle', is a herb in the Commelinaceae family which was first described in 1788. It is native to Central America.
The plant's common name "Moses in the Cradle" is due to its small, white flowers within a boat-shaped, purple bract that resembles a cradle, which is a visual resemblance to the biblical story of Moses in the bulrushes, where he was placed in a basket.
They are hardy in USDA zones 9-12 and are also grown as ornamental houseplants. Its cultivar 'Sitara' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. In Mexico, it is used in traditional medicine as a medicinal plant for sores and wounds, as well as an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory.
It is native to Belize, Guatemala, and southern México (Chiapas, Tabasco, and the Yucatán Peninsula) and is widely cultivated as an ornamental houseplant; it has become naturalized in parts of coastal Southern California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Texas, and various Pacific and Indian Ocean islands.
Longbract spiderwort · Small-leaf spiderwort · Texas spiderwort · Prairie spiderwort · Bluejacket · Purple queen · Wooly Spiderwort · Zigzag spiderwort · Virginia spiderwort · Inchplant · Spiderwort
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Tradescantia spathacea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
