Species
+

Tradescantia zebrina Bosse

Inchplant, Inchplant, Wandering jew, Cockroach grass, Purple wandering Jew, Silver inch plant, Striped trad, Striped wandering creeper, Striped wandering Jew, Wandering zebrina, Zebra plant, inchplant, nanamu ’ura’ura, nanamu vareau, püninamu ’ute’ute

Climate known 51 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Tradescantia zebrina, formerly known as Zebrina pendula, is a species of creeping plant in the Tradescantia genus. Common names include silver inch plant and wandering Jew. The latter name is controversial, and some now use the alternative wandering dude. The plant is popular in cultivation due to its fast growth and attractive foliage. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Tradescantia zebrina”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Tradescantia

Tradescantia is a genus of 85 species of herbaceous perennial wildflowers in the family Commelinaceae, native to the Americas from southern Canada to northern Argentina, including the West Indies. Members of the genus are known by many common names, including inchplant, wandering jew, wandering dude, spiderwort, dayflower and trad.

Text from Wikipedia, “Tradescantia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Commelinaceae
Described by
Bosse
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +11
Wild records
569 in range· 167 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Apr, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1778mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 268 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Tradescantia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1778 mm a year, wettest September at 268 mm, driest March at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Commelina zebrina (Bosse) André; Commelina zebrina C.B.Clarke; Cyanotis zebrina (Bosse) Nees; Tradescantia zebrina Loudon; Tradescantia zebrina subsp. zebrina and 3 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Tradescantia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1327 mm of 1778 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.9 °C against a yearly mean of 21.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1778 mm a year, wettest September at 268 mm, driest March at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1778 mm a year at the habitat, 1327 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 268 mm, driest March at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 978 mm to 3606 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 13.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 13.0 °C, the absolute minimum 11.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 9.5 °C to 22.0 °C), warmest day 28.1 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Dec to 28 °C in Apr; mean night from 16 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1778 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 384 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°29.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–39RH 61–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 384 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 19–2926 / 20–3027 / 21–3128 / 21–3328 / 21–3327 / 20–3126 / 20–3126 / 20–3126 / 20–3025 / 20–2925 / 19–2824 / 19–28
Night °C16 / 10–2216 / 10–2217 / 10–2318 / 11–2419 / 12–2420 / 12–2419 / 11–2419 / 11–2419 / 12–2418 / 11–2317 / 10–2316 / 10–22
Rain mm62 / 11–18751 / 9–16447 / 8–21769 / 20–276141 / 57–360244 / 73–424231 / 54–429231 / 55–442268 / 91–473212 / 83–471132 / 21–36090 / 9–242
DLI30 / 24–3433 / 29–3837 / 31–4339 / 30–4637 / 28–4433 / 26–3934 / 27–4034 / 28–3932 / 27–3630 / 25–3528 / 24–3328 / 23–32
RH %64 / 55–6963 / 54–6861 / 53–6862 / 53–6964 / 55–7167 / 60–7366 / 59–7366 / 59–7368 / 60–7367 / 61–7467 / 59–7365 / 56–71

Each figure is the median across the 384 grid cells holding the 554 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1797:2027 (0.125, -78.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 384 distinct grid cells holding the 554 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1797:2027 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 0.00_-78.750, lapse-corrected -376 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1487 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia· introduced: Algeria, Morocco, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Gambia, The, Guinea, Togo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Angola, St.Helena, Chagos Archipelago, Seychelles, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Jawa, Philippines, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland, Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.403, -96.826 · in the densest population, 212 records (37% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 569 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 167 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 117 km away. 1187 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 569 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Tradescantia zebrinaTradescantia zebrinaTradescantia zebrinaTradescantia zebrinaTradescantia zebrinaTradescantia zebrinaTradescantia zebrinaTradescantia zebrina

Photographs: (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) jlsnaddon, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Greg III Espera, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Helio Lourencini, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Adriana García Ramírez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Tradescantia zebrina, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A Novel Protein Elicitor (PaNie) from Pythium aphanidermatum Induces Multiple Defense Responses in Carrot, Arabidopsis, and Tobacco
Stefan Veit, Jörg Manfred Wörle, Thorsten Nürnberger, Wolfgang Koch (2001) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Antioxidant Content, Antioxidant Activity, and Antibacterial Activity of Five Plants from the Commelinaceae Family
Joash Ban Lee Tan, Wei Ney Yap, Shen Tan, Yau Yan Lim (2014) · Antioxidants
Adiciones para la flora de Tenerife (Islas Canarias, España)
Filip Verloove, J. Alfredo Reyes‐Betancort (2011) · Collectanea Botanica
Interactions between Plant Extracts and Cell Viability Indicators during Cytotoxicity Testing: Implications for Ethnopharmacological Studies
Sze Mun Chan, Kong Soo Khoo, Nam Weng Sit (2015) · Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research
Medicinal plants cultivated in urban home gardens in Heredia, Costa Rica
Roxana González-Ball, Tania Bermúdez-Rojas, Marilyn Romero-Vargas, Melissa Ceuterick (2022) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
PLANTAS INVASORAS ENCONTRADAS NA ÁREA URBANA DE CURITIBA (PR)
Daniela Biondi, José Henrique Pedrosa-Macedo (2008) · FLORESTA
15–Lipoxygenase inhibition of Commelina benghalensis, Tradescantia fluminensis, Tradescantia zebrina
Cean Socorro M. Alaba, Christine L. Chichioco-Hernandez (2014) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
Ultrasound-assisted extraction and encapsulation by spray drying of bioactive compounds from Tradescantia zebrina leaves
Andresa Carla Feihrmann, Natallya Marques da Silva, Annecler Rech de Marins, Marcos Antônio Matiucci (2024) · Food Chemistry Advances
Métodos para controle de plantas exóticas invasoras
Michele de Sá Dechoum, Sílvia Renate Ziller (2013) · Biotemas
Growth, Photosynthesis, and Physiological Responses of Ornamental Plants to Complementation with Monochromic or Mixed Red-Blue LEDs for Use in Indoor Environments
Pedro García‐Caparrós, Gabriela Martínez-Ramírez, Eva María Almansa, Francisco Javier Barbero (2020) · Agronomy

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Tradescantia 7 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 100 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.