Gynandropsis gynandra |
Cleomaceae |
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cat's-whiskers |
spider-flower family |
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Habit | Plants (50–)90–150 cm. | Herbs or shrubs, annual or perennial (usually deciduous, evergreen in Peritoma arborea); spines usually absent (present in Hemiscola and Tarenaya); glabrous or glandular-pubescent, hairs stalked or sessile (producing glucosinolates). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | usually erect, sometimes spreading or procumbent; branched or unbranched. |
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Leaves | petiole 3.5–4.5(–8) cm, glandular-pubescent; leaflet blade oblanceolate to rhombic, 2.5–4.5 × 1.2–2.5 cm, margins serrulate-denticulate, apex acute, surfaces glabrate to glandular-pubescent. |
alternate, spirally arranged (usually palmately compound, sometimes simple); venation pinnate; stipules usually present (usually caducous, sometimes deciduous, 3–8-palmatifid, linear, threadlike, minute, scalelike, or absent, nodal (stipular) spines present in Tarenaya and Hemiscola); petiole present (pulvinus usually present, nectaries absent, petiolar spines sometimes present, petiolules present); blade margins entire, serrate, or serrulate. |
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Racemes | 5–20 cm (10–40 cm in fruit); bracts trifoliate, 10–25 mm. |
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Inflorescences | terminal or axillary, usually racemose, sometimes flat-topped, or flowers solitary (usually elongated in fruit); bud scales absent; bracts present or absent (unifoliate, often trifoliate proximally, bracteoles absent). |
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Pedicels | purple, 8–15 mm, glabrous. |
present. |
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Flowers | sepals green, lanceolate, 3.5–5 × 0.8–1.2 mm, glandular-pubescent; petals purple or white, oblong to ovate, 7–14 × 3–4 mm; stamens purple, 8–30 mm; anthers 1–2 mm; gynophore purple, 10–14 mm in fruit; ovary 6–10 mm; style 1–1.2 mm. |
usually bisexual (developmentally unisexual within sections of racemes), actinomorphic or slightly zygomorphic, rotate to crateriform, campanulate, or urceolate; perianth and androecium hypogynous; sepals persistent or deciduous, 4, distinct or connate basally; petals 4, attached directly to receptacle, imbricate, distinct, equal or unequal; intrastaminal nectary-discs, scales, or glands present or absent; stamens [4–]6–27[–35]; filaments free or basally adnate to gynophore (or along proximal 1/3–1/2 in Gynandropsis) or androgynophore, glabrous or pubescent; anthers dehiscing by longitudinal slits, pollen shed in single grains, binucleate, commonly tricolporate; gynophore present or absent; pistil 1; ovary 1-carpellate (except 2 in Oxystylis), 2-locular; placentation parietal; ovules 1–18(–26+) per locule, anatropous, bitegmic; style 1 (straight, relatively short, thick, not spinelike in fruit, except in Oxystylis, sometimes in Wislizenia); stigma 1, capitate, unlobed. |
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Fruits | capsular or nutlets (usually stipitate from elongation of gynophore, erect to divergent, usually not inflated), valvate, elongate (± dehiscent by 2 lateral valves, except in Polanisia), or schizocarps (inflated in Peritoma arborea), indehiscent or dehiscent. |
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Capsules | 45–95 × 3–4 mm, glandular-pubescent. |
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Seeds | reddish brown to black, 1.4–1.6 × 1–1.2 mm, rugose to tuberculate. |
1–65[–200], tan, yellowish brown, light brown, pale green, brown, reddish brown, silver-gray, or gray to black (papillose or tuberculate); arillate or not; endosperm scanty or absent, persistent perisperm sometimes present; cotyledons incumbent, (radicle-hypocotyl elongated). |
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2n | = 34, 36. |
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Gynandropsis gynandra |
Cleomaceae |
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Phenology | Flowering late spring–late summer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Disturbed roadsides, vacant lots, waste areas, railroads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0-200 m (0-700 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; NY; OK; PA; SC; TX; Old World tropics [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America] |
Nearly worldwide; tropical and temperate regions |
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Discussion | The C4 photosynthetic pathway has been reported from Gynandropsis gynandra (S. K. Imbamba and L. T. Tieszen 1977). This species is sometimes grown as an ornamental. B. S. Barton (1836, p. 317) provided a detailed and accurate illustration of the flower, obviously drawn from life; this indicates that the species was cultivated (perhaps escaped) in Pennsylvania at that time. In some tropical countries, it is cultivated as a potherb (K. Waithaka and Chweya 1991; J. A. Chweya and N. A. Mnzava 1997). It is also used medicinally. The fresh plant has a peculiar odor that is sometimes described as similar to burning Cannabis. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera 17, species ca. 150 (12 genera, 34 species in the flora). A discussion of the status of Cleomaceae and its segregation from Capparaceae (in the narrow sense) appears under the latter. Throughout this treatment, style length indicates the length in fruit; in some species, the style elongates after anthesis. The key to genera, in some cases, include characteristics of species, in addition to those of genera. This circumscription of Cleomaceae includes Oxystylidaceae Hutchinson. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 7, p. 223. | FNA vol. 7, p. 199. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Cleomaceae > Gynandropsis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Cleome gynandra, Cleome heterotricha, Cleome pentaphylla, G. heterotricha, G. pentaphylla | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) Briquet: Annuaire Conserv. Jard. Bot. Genève 17: 382. (1914) | Berchtold & J. Presl | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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