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giant spider-flower, pink-queen, spider-flower, spiderplant

Habit Plants (50–)100–200 cm.
Stems

sparsely branched;

glandular-pubescent.

Leaves

stipular spines 1–3 mm;

petiole 2.5–7.5 cm, glandular-pubescent, with scattered spines 1–3 mm;

leaflets 5 or 7, blade elliptic to oblanceolate, 2–6(–12) × 1–3 cm, margins serrulate-denticulate, apex acute, surfaces glandular-pubescent abaxially, glandular adaxially.

Racemes

5–30 cm (10–80 cm in fruit);

bracts unifoliate, ovate, 10–25 mm.

Pedicels

20–45 mm, glandular-pubescent.

Flowers

sepals (reflexed after anthesis), green, linear-lanceolate, 5–7 × 0.8–1.3 mm, glabrous;

petals usually pink or purple, sometimes white (or fading to white by second day), oblong to ovate, 20–30(–45) × 8–12 mm;

stamens purple, 30–50 mm;

anthers 9–10 mm;

gynophore 45–80 mm in fruit;

ovary 6–10 mm, glabrous;

style 0.1 mm.

Capsules

(25–)40–80 × 2.5–4 mm, glabrous (in straight alignment with gynophore and pedicel).

Seeds

10–20, 1.9–2.1 × 1.9–2.1 mm, tuberculate.

2n

= 20.

Tarenaya hassleriana

Phenology Flowering late spring–late summer.
Habitat Disturbed roadsides, vacant lots, waste areas, gravel pits, lakeshores, streambeds
Elevation 0-200(-800) m (0-700(-2600) ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; WI; WV; QC; South America [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico, West Indies, Central America]
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Discussion

Tarenaya hassleriana is native to Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. It is often cultivated and has sometimes escaped and naturalized. In cultivation and various floras, it has long been treated under the name Cleome spinosa; that name properly applies to the next species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 7, p. 219.
Parent taxa Cleomaceae > Tarenaya
Sibling taxa
T. spinosa
Synonyms Cleome hassleriana
Name authority (Chodat) H. H. Iltis: Novon 17: 450. (2007)
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