Details
| Full name | Tradescantia zebrina ‘Red Gem’. |
| Name status | Accepted, the valid name for a unique cultivar. In circulation since at least 2011 in the US (Tom Antill, private correspondence). No hardcopy publication has been found, so the name is not established (Brickell et al., 2016, Art. 27.1). |
| Origins | Unknown. |
| Classification | The species Tradescantia zebrina is sometimes labelled with its botanical synonyms Tradescantia pendula, Tradescantia argentea, Zebrina pendula and Cyanotis zebrina. |
| Legal protection | None. |
| Availability | Locally available from a very small number of specialists and collectors. Other cultivars are frequently mislabelled with this name. |
Description
Described with reference to the RHS Colour Chart (6th Edition: 2019 reprint).
The entire plant can vary its appearance dramatically in different conditions – changing in growth habit, leaf shape, size, and colour. It’s impossible to cover every possible variation, but this general summary describes a typical healthy plant.
| Species | Tradescantia zebrina. |
| Growth habit | Stems initially grow upright but soon start to sprawl and trail out of any container. |
| Foliage | Stems are 2.5-5mm wide, with internodes 1.5-5cm long – usually longest at the base and becoming more compact towards the ends of growing stems. The colour ranges from greyish reddish brown (200B) to strong yellow green (145A). All stems are dotted with lighter green freckles and completely hairless. Leaves are very slightly asymmetrical pointed ovals, 5-9cm long and 2.5-5.5cm wide, smooth except for a few hairs at the top of the sheath. Each half of the leaf has a shimmering band running its length, taking up 20-30% of its total width. In moderate light, the base colour of the upper surfaces is greyish olive green (NN137A) to dark yellowish green (139A), with metallic greenish grey (N189C) bands. In intense light, the upper surfaces of all the leaves darken dramatically to greyish purple (N77A) or dark purplish red (N79B). The bands remain silver on the newest leaves, but darken to become indistinguishable as the leaves age. Undersides are dark purple (79A) to dark purplish red (N79A). Leaf sheaths are strong yellow green (145A) to light purplish grey (N187D). |
| Flowers | Flowers not observed. |
| Comparisons | Compared to Tradescantia zebrina ‘Discolor’, the leaves are very similar in moderate light, but in intense light they become dark purple instead of reddish brown. |
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.