Details
| Full name | Tradescantia cerinthoides ‘Variegata’. |
| Name status | Accepted, the valid name for a unique cultivar. Established with a description and photo by Graf (1959, p. 435, 1068). The Latin name should not be established after the start of 1959 (Brickell et al., 2016, Art. 21.11). But despite ‘Variegata’ being invalid, no other name has ever been used for this cultivar. So the name ‘Variegata’ is now accepted, and this decision will be established once published (Brickell et al., 2016, Art. 11.6). Not to be confused with:
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| Origins | Unknown. |
| Classification | The species Tradescantia cerinthoides is sometimes labelled with its botanical synonym Tradescantia blossfeldiana. |
| Legal protection | None. |
| Availability | Rare or lost from cultivation, it was last documented in 2013 (“Tradescantia blossfeldiana variegata”, 2013). It was listed for sale in Royal Horticultural Society (2020, p. 801), but this was in error as the listed nursery have never grown the cultivar (Gill Stitt of Shrublands Nursery, personal correspondence, January 2022). |
Description
Described based on Graf (1959, p. 435, 1068), and comparison with more recent cultivars.
| Species | Tradescantia cerinthoides. |
| Foliage | The stems and leaf undersides are purple and covered in white fur. The top of the leaves are green, with random sectors of cream to yellow or pink variegation. |
| Comparisons | Compared to Tradescantia cerinthoides ‘Nanouk’, the leaf undersides and stems are hairy. Compared to both ‘Nanouk’ and Tradescantia cerinthoides ‘Pink Furry’, the variegation is more random. ‘Variegata’ has pale areas which extend all the way from the base to the margin of the leaf, and cover anything from 0-100% of the leaf surface. ‘Nanouk’ and ‘Pink Furry’ both have a pale margin on every leaf, with more uniform small green stripes extending up from the base and covering about half the leaf surface. |
References
Graf, A. B. (1959). Exotica 2: Pictorial Cyclopedia of Indoor Plants. Roehrs Company.
“Tradescantia blossfeldiana variegata”. (2013, June 14). Internet Archive link.
Brickell, C. D., Alexander, C., Cubey, J. J., David, J. C., Hoffman, M. H. A., Leslie, A. C., Malécot, V., Jin, X. (2016). International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. PDF link.