Plant Id?

[jacobi]

Can anyone identify this plant? I saw it in a local hardware store, that for some reason seems to get plants which are mainly relegated to a shelf in a back corner of the store where they die slowly... So I try to check them out every couple of weeks. This one had been dumped into a pot with a bunch of other plants and had no label (the label you can is for a pothos). Anybody know what is? Its one plant growing out of a central stem.

[jacobi]

Knock knock
Who's there
BUMP

[MeiKVR6]

Tradescantia spathacea would be my guess.

[jacobi]

Thanks. I wonder how that's do in a vivarium...

[KeroKero]

I'd also say it's Tradescantia spathacea, the unvariegated form. I've heard it called Oyster plant or Moses in the Cradle. I used it in terrariums way back when and it was pretty good at outgrowing the 10g pretty fast! It would get leggy and I would hack it back, and it would come back again... Much like any Tradescantia (they tend to be weedy vines). High humidity causes it to be leggy, but a lower humidity tank with good air flow could keep it more under control. Not a bad plant, just big. Thick enough leaves that it could hold any PDF (but they are also a big succulent showing that the plant is from lower humidity areas than a rainforest). It is pretty invasive, and I mean that both in the tank and outside the tank - it is an invasive weed in two states!

If you use the one in the photo make sure that it grows out a bit and you wash the leaves really well as some of that white spotting may be fertilizers. Also repot it!