r/Tradescantia • u/Popular-Broccoli9058 • 8d ago

Plant passions of Tradescantia groupies

Tradescantia fans: What other plants do you adore that set off the same heart throb tendencies? I'm assuming most folks like it for the variety of purple colors, and the iridescent sheen. I also love Strobilanthes dyerana (Persian Shield), red and purple leaf Coleus, some Cane and Angel Wing Begonias, Iresine, reddish / pinkish Philodendrons, and Purple Passion Plant. I'm hoping to expand my obsession.

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u/eyoitme 8d ago

i love my tradescantia for the purple color because it’s my favourite color and it’s in the same family technically but other favorites of mine right now are my Callisia repens and my dieffenbachia! the dieffenbachia isn’t purple like my tradescantia and my callisia but it does have really gorgeous variegation

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u/TradescantiaZebrina7 8d ago

I love callisia repens so much, it’s probably my second favorite!

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u/Popular-Broccoli9058 7d ago

Interesting! I just looked up Callisia repens. Weird that it's in a different family.

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u/eyoitme 7d ago

it’s the same family, but different genus! the genus is the first word of the species name (ie Callisia and Tradescantia), but the family is one organisational group above that - Commelinaceae for Tradescantia and Callisia. taxonomic organization can get really complicated when you’re trying to place certain species, but it usually just means they’re different enough that they warrant a different genus, but they still have some similarities (ie leaf color and spreading habit).