Because of its slender, drooping leaves, this delicate blue-to-violet,
three-petaled flower might easily be mistaken for a lily. Plants grow
from 8 to 18 inches high. A perennial, the spiderwort’s thick, succulent
roots enable it to produce blossoms from April to September. Not
abundant, it is usually found in moist locations in desert mountain
ranges at elevations above 2,500 feet. Flowers form in clusters at the
tip of a plant’s stem, and are pollenized by bumblebees that eat the
pollen.
_Tradescantia occidentalis_ Spiderwort Family
[Illustration: PRAIRIE SPIDERWORT]