Cleome spinosa

It is a robust ornamental plant and may be mistaken for a cultivated variety of Gynandropsis gynandra, but it has no androphore. It is commonly known as `Spider flower'.

A tall, viscid, pubescent, strong-scented annual or biennial, 60-90 (-120) cm tall. Leaves large, 5-7-foliolate; leaflets oblong-lanceolate, up to 10 cm long and about 2-3 cm wide, subentire to finely or slightly serrulate; peticle in the lower leaves usually longer than the leaflets, with 2 small spiny stipules at the base. Inflorescence many flowered, conspicuously bracteate, raceme. Flowers large, white or pinkish, about 2-2.5 cm across; pedicel long, but shorter than the gyno¬phore, both elongated and thickened in fruit. Sepals 5-8 mm long; petals about 2-3 times as long as the sepals; limb obovate, clawed, about 1 cm broad with an equally long claw. Stamens 6, about twice as long as the petals. Gynophore about 6-8 cm long in fruit. Fruit 30-45 mm long, 3-3.5 mm broad, cylindric-linear; seeds many, glabrous.

Distribution: Native of Trop. South America.