n. Any of various plants of the genus Tradescantia of the Americas, especially T. virginiana, having long thin leaves and three-petaled blue, purple, pink, or white flowers. [Originally, any of various European plants of the genus Anthericum, later also applied to plants of the genus Tradescantia : SPIDER (perhaps because the long leaves of both genera typically grow upward and then bend sharply downward, resembling a spider's bowed legs, or because the species A. ramosum was used in ancient times to treat the bite of the European tarantula ) + WORT1.] |
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