Plants
Wandering dude
Tradescantia zebrina
BeginnerFine in a closed jar
Silver and purple striped trailers. Fast, forgiving cover.
What the simulation uses
- Light
- 1,500 to 12,000 lux
- The brightness it grows well in.
- Humidity
- 45 to 100 % RH
- Air moisture it is happy in; below the lower end it dries out.
- Temperature
- 15 to 29 °C
- Comfortable range; outside it growth slows.
- Dies at
- below 7 or above 35 °C
- Days beyond these temperatures kill it.
- Soil pH
- 5.5 to 7 pH
- Soil acidity it prefers.
- Grows up
- 2 cm/month
- How fast it gains height in good conditions.
- Spreads
- 5.5 cm/month
- How fast its edge creeps outwards.
- Copes with wet
- fair
- How well it stands soggy soil; poor means rot comes quickly.
- Copes with still air
- good
- Sealed jars have still air; poor means grey mould finds it.
- Copes with shade
- good
- How well it holds on in dim light.
- Copes with drying
- fair
- How well it survives the jar drying out.
- Water use
- 0.08 ml/cm²/day
- Water drawn up from its roots per cm² of leaves in room air; a sealed jar cuts this to a fraction and returns it down the glass.
- Leaf drop
- 3 %/month
- Share of its leaves it sheds each month as litter for the cleanup crew.
- Soft leaves
- yes
- Soft new growth that hungry isopods will nibble.
- Full size
- 15 cm tall, 60 cm wide
- Its size when grown, before the lid stops it.
Care
- Day length
- 10 to 14 h
- Substrate
- Moist
What kills it
- prolonged cold below 7 C
- crown rot in waterlogged soil
Description
Bottle gardeners like it for quick, easy cover. Any cut piece with a joint roots readily. When the jar gets leggy, prune it and push the cuttings back into the soil.
Also called inch plant, wandering jew, silver inch plant.
Estimated, where sources were thin: no species-level growth rate or lux study found; ranges from general houseplant guides.