Details
| Full name | Tradescantia Continental Group. |
| Name status | Accepted, the valid name for a cultivar group. This newly-registered name is accepted and will be established once published in hardcopy (Brickell et al., 2016, Art. 27.1). |
| Origins | A group of cultivars of unknown origin, which are most likely hybrids of various species from the subgenus Austrotradescantia. Named by Helen Winnington, because many cultivars of the group seem to originate from continental Europe. |
| Classification | This group are sometimes labelled as the species Tradescantia albiflora. However, this is now considered a botanical synonym for Tradescantia fluminensis (POWO, 2022), and these cultivars do not seem to belong to that species. |
| Included cultivars | There are many closely-related cultivars in circulation which are not clearly distinguished from one another, so the exact number and identity of unique cultivars in the group is currently unknown. View all Tradescantia Continental Group cultivars. |
Description
| Species | Tradescantia subg. Austrotradescantia. |
| Growth habit | Tropical evergreen perennials. Sprawling, creeping, or trailing stems. Growth is often slow and very compact, with a highly-branching habit. |
| Foliage | Stems are succulent, usually with very short internodes. Leaves are fairly succulent, often smooth but sometimes hairy, from 5-12cm long. Most cultivars are variegated white or pink, with a pale area at the margin of each leaf and thin green stripes extending upwards from the base. The group also includes plain-green reverted sports. |
| Flowers | 10-15mm across. Petals are white, either flat or with a very slight pleat at the centre. Anthers are yellow, stamen filaments and pistil are white. |
References
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.
POWO. (2022). Tradescantia albiflora. Plants of the World Online. Link.