Wandering jew
Tradescantia fluminensis
Family · Commelinaceae · Harmless
The glossy green fleshy mat that completely covers the floor of damp shady northern valleys and lets nothing else come up. A stem fragment with one node is enough to start a new patch.
Streams and ditches · Oak woods · Town and roadside
Also known assmall-leaf spiderwort, white-flowered wandering jew
How to tell it
Fleshy, translucent, brittle stems lying on the ground and rooting at every node. Alternate, oval, glossy leaves with a sheath clasping the stem. Small white flowers of three equal petals, in small clusters between two bracts. It forms continuous mats ten to thirty centimetres thick.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use
It is among the hardest invaders to remove in Atlantic Europe precisely because it spreads only by fragments: pulling it carelessly spreads it. Where it covers the ground, the wood stops regenerating.
The law says
A listed invasive alien species in Portugal. Do not plant it, propagate it, or carry fragments on your boots.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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