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This Morning Outsideby Diane PorterMay 16, 2010 This lovely wildflower has the harsh-sounding name of spiderwort. The blossoms are usually blue and clustered, but this one growing by the side of a wooded trail this morning was deep violet. Perhaps there will more tomorrow.
The flower's scientific name is tradescantia, after two 17th Century botanizing Englishmen, named John Tradescant the Elder and John Tradescant the Younger, who collected plants from around the world.
Other common names for it are Wandering Jew. Purple Heart, and Purple Queen. The smaller small photo shows the more usual appearance of this wildflower, at least here in southeast Iowa. It has a bluer blossom and more rounded leaves. If you bring tradescantia into the rich soil of the garden, it will become huge, with watery stems. I find it gets too big and floppy to look good in the garden, but I encourage it in more natural settings, where it is like blue gems among the grasses and undergrowth of the woods. — Diane Porter
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The flower may have earned its common name of Spiderwort because of the way the flowers sort of dangle off the plant, like spiders. Wort is just an old English word for plant.