Botanical name: Callisia fragrans    Family: Commelinaceae (Dayflower family)
Synonyms: Spironema orthandrum, Spironema fragrans, Rectanthera fragrans

Basket Plant is a creeping herbaceous plant with clusters of large, green or purplish, fleshy leaves. Flowers are fragrant and clustered towards the tips of long flowering stems. They are arranged in branch-end panicle-like clusters, containing large numbers of flowers and are arranged into smaller dense clusters, each subtended by a papery bract 1-1.5 cm long). Individual flowers are almost stalkless with three lanceshaped, short-lived, white petals, about 6 mm long, that wilt at noon. They also have three whitish-transparent, membranous sepals, 5-6 mm long, that are lanceshaped. Each flower also has six large white stamens, that can sometimes be mistaken for petals (i.e. the connectives between the anthers on each stamen are broad and flaglike), and an ovary topped with an elongated stigma. Flowering occurs mostly during late winter and spring. Stems are rather fleshy and develop into long runners. These runners readily give rise to new plants. Flowering stems are more upright, and reach up to 1.5 m tall. The large clustered leaves, 5-40 cm long, 2.5-10 cm broad, are spirally arranged and either green, purplish-green or purplish in color. The leaves are oblong or lanceshaped, hairless and have pointed tips. The fruit are small, three-celled, capsules. Basket Plant is native to Mexico, cultivated elsewhere.
Medicinal uses: It has a rich folkloric reputation as an antiviral and antimicrobial plant. Especially in Eastern Europe, its leaves are used for treatment of various skin diseases, burns and joint disorders.

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The flower labeled Basket Plant is ...