Details
| Full name | Tradescantia fluminensis ‘Yellow Hill’. |
| Name status | Accepted, the valid name for a unique cultivar. Listed with no description since 1999, by Floricode (2022). No hardcopy description has been found, so the name is accepted and will be established once published (Brickell et al., 2016, Art. 27.1). Also known as:
The most widely-used name ‘Yellow Hill’ is now accepted for this cultivar. |
| Origins | Unknown. |
| Classification | The species Tradescantia fluminensis has sometimes been labelled with its botanical synonym Tradescantia albiflora, and with the invalid horticultural names Tradescantia viridis, Tradescantia repens, and Tradescantia reptans. |
| Legal protection | None. |
| Availability | Mass-produced and widely available. |
Description
Preserved in a herbarium specimen (“Tradescantia fluminensis ‘Yellow Hill'”, 2022).
Described with reference to the RHS Colour Chart (6th Edition: 2019 reprint).
| Species | Tradescantia fluminensis. |
| Growth habit | Low-growing, creeping stems which will spread out of any container and trail downwards. Very fast and vigorous growth. |
| Foliage | Stems are 2-4mm wide with internodes 2-6cm long, smooth except for one line of tiny hairs running along the length. New growth stems are strong yellow green (144A), darker green with age and sometimes dark red (187A). Leaves are pointed ovals, 4-6cm long and 2-3cm wide, smooth except for a few hairs at the top of the sheath. The base colour of the leaves is moderate olive green (137A) above and moderate yellow green (147B) underneath. They are randomly striped with pale mottled areas, which can cover anything from 0%-100% of the leaf surface. Pale areas range from strong greenish yellow (151C) on the newest growth to pale yellow green (155A) on old mature leaves. Leaf sheaths are moderate yellow green (138B to 138C). In lower light, the stems tend to be longer and thinner and the leaves smaller. Extremely intense light occasionally causes faint pink areas on the leaf undersides. |
| Flowers | Small white flowers, typical for the species. Not very common when grown indoors. |
| Comparisons | Compared to Tradescantia fluminensis ‘Variegata’, the stripes are more blurry and mottled, growth is much faster and more vigorous, and pink shades are less common. |
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.
Floricode. (2022). E-Barcodes. Internet Archive link.
Tradescantia fluminensis ‘Yellow Hill’. (2022). [Herbarium specimen, barcode WSY0168486]. RHS Wisley Herbarium.