Prairie Spiderwort, Spiderlily, Western Spiderwort,Tradescantia occidentalis,Spiderwort Family (Commelinaceae)

Found in hot, sunny open areas
Seen blooming in August on the Madera Trail, Santa Fe National Forest

Prairie Spiderwort grows to 20 inches tall with long, narrow, arching, grass-like leaves. Flowers grow in clusters and can be pink, purple or blue opening in the morning for a day. They are one to two inches across with three roundish petals and six stamens with long blue hairs topped by golden anthers. The cells of the stamen hairs of Prairie Spiderwort are normally colored blue, but when exposed to neutron radiation or other forms of ionizing radiation, the cells mutate and change color to pink. Thus the plant can be used as a bioassay for radiation. Source. There were bright pink flowers blooming on the trail. Native Americans ate the tender shoots of the Spiderwort as greens and used infusions of the root as a diuretic, an aphrodisiac, for internal injury and in a cut on the head 'to stop craziness.'  Source.
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