Two long, slender, leaf-like bracts spread from underneath the cluster of blue to magenta flowers from the tips and leaf nodes of fleshy, succulent stems that reach 20-inches tall. Note the stems are branching, smooth, hairless, and covered with a waxy, whitish coating.

FLOWER: April–August. An open cluster at the stem tip and nodes has from a few to many flowers on stem-like pedicels 3/8–1 1/4-inch long (8-30 mm). The bright-blue to lavender or rose-colored flowers have 3 oval petals 1/4–3/4-inch long (7–16 mm), and 6 stamens with purple bearded filaments and yellow anthers. In var. occidentalis, sepals enclosing the buds are hairy; in var. scopulorum they are hairless.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades narrow, to 12-inches long (30 cm) and 3/4-inch wide (2 cm), with parallel veins. The blades are smooth, hairless, waxy, folded along the midvein, and the base sheaths the stem.

HABITAT: Sandy soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; shortgrass prairies, foothills, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa forests.

ELEVATION: 4,300–8,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ to Mississippi River and north into Canada.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 3 species in NM. Wright’s Spiderwort, T. wrightii, in the se 1/4 of NM, has smooth, hairless stems without branches and flower petals to 3/8-inch long (1 cm). Pinewoods Spiderwort, T. pinetorum, the western 1/2 of NM, has usually unbranching stems, petals 3/8–1/2-inch long (9–12 mm), and leaf sheaths with small hairs. Two Dayflowers, Commelina dianthifolia, and Commelina erecta, have flower buds enclosed in a boat-like spathe, hairless filaments, and do not have the two long bracts extending from underneath the flowers.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide (not reported from Bernalillo, Catron, Curry counties) in low- to mid- elevation sandy habitats.