# Purple heart

*Tradescantia pallida*

Common · Trailing · Easy · Mild

A trailing plant. Prefers bright indirect light. Wants a substrate that drains steadily. As a species it wants water about every 7 days. Mildly toxic if ingested.

## Purple heart: how often should you water it?

That’s the interval our references converge on for this species indoors: roughly every 7 days between waterings, adjusted for your light and your season.

### Why we don’t give you a date.

We publish the interval this species usually wants. We don’t publish a date for your plant — nothing here measures it. The interval is a starting point you adjust from what you actually log.

Guidance is curated against general horticultural references including the RHS, the Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder, and university extension services. Each field is either published or left empty — never estimated.

## Care cadences

- **Water** — Every ~7 days
- **Fertilize** — Every ~30 days
- **Repot** — Every ~730 days

Not established for this species: clean leaves · mist. We’d rather leave them empty than guess.

## What’s known about this species

### Light

- **Exposure:** Bright indirect
- **Tolerates direct sun:** Yes
- **Minimum light:** 2150 lux
- **Daily light target:** 8 mol/m²/day

### Environment

- **Ideal temperature:** 22 °C (min 13 °C, max 27 °C)
- **Humidity:** 40–60% RH

### Soil & pot

- **Drainage:** moderate
Plant in a well-draining potting mix and give it a bright, sunny spot to keep the purple color vivid; refresh by division or repot yearly in spring as it can get leggy.

### Toxicity

Mild · Toxic to pets
Not specifically listed by the ASPCA, but closely related Tradescantia (Inch Plant, Tahitian Bridal Veil) are ASPCA-listed as toxic to cats, dogs, and horses causing dermatitis; the sap's calcium oxalates can mildly irritate skin and mouth.

### A short profile, on purpose

2 of the fields we publish aren’t established for this species in the references we trust. Empty means unknown — not zero, and not a guess.

[Suggest a correction](https://verdalia.app/en/species/suggest?slug=tradescantia-pallida)

## The species’ year

- **Growing:** Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
- **Dormant:** Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
- **Feed:** Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
- **Repot:** Apr, May, Jun

A typical year for this species in a temperate northern home. It shifts with your light and your latitude — we don’t track your plant’s season, so treat this as rhythm, not schedule.

## Keep this species honest in your own log.

Verdalia holds the interval, your log moves it. Free to start.

[Start tracking](https://app.verdalia.app/register)

Verdalia publishes species guidance curated from horticultural references. It does not measure your plant — you log what you do, and the intervals adjust to what you log.

[Suggest a correction](https://verdalia.app/en/species/suggest?slug=tradescantia-pallida)

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- [Русский](https://verdalia.app/ru/species/tradescantia-pallida.md)
- [Species library](https://verdalia.app/en/species.md)