Boat Lily
Tradescantia spathacea
Also known as Rheo, Oyster Plant, Moses-In-The-Boat
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra & more
- Flowering
- September-April
How to identify Boat Lily
Identify Boat Lily by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Boat-shaped purple-lined leaf bracts (oyster plant/Moses-in-the-boat).
- Confirm leaf arrangement: Basal.
- Confirm leaf shape: Lanceolate.
- Confirm flower colour: White.
- Confirm flower arrangement: Cyme.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: September-April.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Tradescantia spathacea
- Genus
- Tradescantia
- Family
- Commelinaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Habitat
- Grown as garden plant
- Habitat type
- Cultivated
- Distribution
- South East Mexico to Guatemala, widely introduced elsewere
- Found in India
- Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Goa, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Punjab, Bihar, Mizoram, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Odisha
- Flowering & fruiting
- September-April
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf arrangement
- BasalrecordedLeaves cluster at the base of the plant rather than along a stem.“The short-stemmed perennial shrub grows in a dense clump and forms a rosette of thick, lanceolate or linear leaves, about 30 cm long and 7 cm wide, facing upward, which are dark gr” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Leaf shape
- LanceolaterecordedLong and narrow, tapering to a point, like a lance head.“Tradescantia spathacea has fleshy rhizomes and rosettes of waxy lance-shaped leaves.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
Characters marked “recorded” are for Boat Lily itself; the rest are typical of the Commelinaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Whiterecorded
- Flower arrangement
- CymerecordedA branched cluster where the central/terminal flower opens first.“The flowers are very small, white and clustered, arise in axillary cymes enclosed in purple, boat-shaped bracts (giving their common name, Moses-in-the-Cradle).” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Cyme
- Fruit
- Capsule
Characters marked “recorded” are for Boat Lily itself; the rest are typical of the Commelinaceae family — flowering plants only.
About Boat Lily
Boat lily (Tradescantia spathacea) belongs to the Commelinaceae family, where it grows as a herb. In India it has been recorded in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and 21 other states. It is grown as garden plant. Flowering and fruiting run from September to April.
Uses
In practice it is long used in traditional medicine, planted as an ornamental and stripped for fibre used in rope and matting. Those medicinal uses are traditional attributions, not medical advice.
Commelinaceae
Spiderwort Family
Boat Lily belongs to the Commelinaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Commelinaceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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