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Rhoeo spathacea
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sep-2004-20.jpg

Rhoeo spathacea
Family: Commeliniaceae (one species) Now relegated by some botanists to Tradescantia
Common Name(s): Oyster plant
Grown by: Bruce Peters, San Francisco

spathacea - spoon or spatulalike

From Meso-America and the Western Caribbean, Bruce showed two forms with vividly colored succulent foliage with 7 to 9 inch spatula shaped leaves of cream, gray, green, and purple.
This is a plant with many forms and many poetically descriptive common names such as Boat Lily, Moses-on-a-boat, Moses-in-a-boat, Moses-in-the-cradle, Two-men-in-a-boat, etc., referring to how the flowers sit deeply in the cuplike folds of the leaves...

Photo by Bruce Peters