I found them volunteering in between cracks (or at the foot ) of the huge old walls build in the old parts of Rio de Janeiro town.
Only found out after loading the pics, one of them was blooming, so I made a crop of one of the photos..

That looks like the houseplant (for us northerners) called Moses in the Cradle (Tradescantia spathacea). 30 years ago, I learned it with a genus name of Rhoeo.

I agree, Tradescantia spathacea: http://mobile.floridata.com/Pl...

I think all of the photo's in our database at this entry here Oyster Plant (Tradescantia spathacea) actually belong at the listing for the variegated variety here: Variegated Oyster Plant (Tradescantia spathacea 'Sitara')

Thanks Rick and thanks for the confirmation Lin!
I would never have thought Tradescantia had such a big family member, but it definitely looks like Tradescantia spathacea!
I will propose to move the pics of the species in our database to Tradescantia spathacea "variegata"..

Years ago I'd see this plant labeled as Rhoeo spathacea, which is now considered a synonym for Tradescantia spatahcea; common names are Boat Lily and Moses in the Cradle. It has a pretty little white bract type bloom that's shaped like a boat or cradle. Some people use it as a ground cover and it is a pretty plant but it's listed as a Category II non-native, invasive here in Florida because of it's tendencies to take over and crowd out natives.

bonitin said:I would never have thought Tradescantia had such a big family member....

That was my point with mentioning the old name. I'm sure many would recognize it as Rhoeo.