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Details
| Full name | Tradescantia brevifolia × hirta ‘Raspberry Ruffle’. |
| Name status | Accepted, the valid name for a unique cultivar. Registered in 2024, the name will be established once published in hardcopy (Brickell et al., 2016, Art. 27.1). |
| Origins | Seedling of a cross between Tradescantia brevifolia ‘Scout’ (seed parent) and Tradescantia hirta ‘Swifttale’ (pollen parent), bred in 2023. Named after the old-fashioned sweet, in reference to the appearance of the flower. Bred, named, registered, and introduced by Avery Rowe in Machynlleth, Wales, UK. |
| Classification | The plant is a first-generation hybrid between Tradescantia brevifolia and Tradescantia hirta, the first documented hybrid of these species. This hybrid has no established name, so is written by naming both parents. |
| Legal protection | None. |
| Availability | Newly introduced in the UK. |
Description
Described with reference to the RHS Colour Chart (6th Edition; 2019 reprint).
| Species | Tradescantia brevifolia × hirta. |
| Growth habit | Clumps of fairly upright stems with minimal branching. Becomes pale and etiolated easily in less than full sun. |
| Foliage | Stems are 3-8mm thick with internodes 1.5-6cm long, hairless. Colour is greyish olive green (N137B) to strong yellow green (143A). Leaves are straight-sided with pointed tips, 7-15cm long and 1-1.5cm wide. Undersides and sheaths are scattered with long white hairs. In intense light, the edges of the leaves curl inwards and the leaves are angled up towards the stem. The upper surfaces are moderate olive green (137B) to greyish olive green (NN137B). The lower surfaces are moderate yellowish green (N138B) to greyish olive green (NN137A), becoming stained with greyish purple (N187B) in bright light. Sheaths are moderate yellow green (146C). |
| Flowers | The flowering stalk is 5-10cm long, with two unequal bracts of 3-9cm long at the top. Flowers are 30mm across. The petals are brilliant purple (N81C), with slightly ruffled edges. Stamens are dark pink with short light pink hairs on the filament. Anthers are yellow. Style is dark pink with a white stigma. Slightly fragrant. |
| Comparisons | The plant has intermediate characteristics between the parents. The leaves are longer and narrower than ‘Scout’, but shorter and wider than ‘Swifttale’. The flowers are larger and darker than ‘Scout’, but lighter than ‘Swifttale’. |
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.