Cleome L.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Cleomaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs, seldom reaching more than 1 m. Leaves alternate, palmately compound, with 3-7 leaflets and petioles almost as long as the blades. Flowers produced in racemes at the end of stem, or solitary in leaf axils, the racemes showing transition between leaves and bracts. Flowers zygomorphic; calyx of 4 free sepals; petals 4, clawed, arranged toward one side of the flower; stamens 6 to many, sometimes on elongate stipe (androgynophore); ovary nearly cylindrical, usually borne on elongate stipe (gynophore) or less often sessile (as in C. viscosa), with 2 carpels, the stigma capitate. Fruit an elongate, cylindrical, dry capsule, opening along 2 valves, leaving a border where the seeds were attached (replum); seeds kidney-shaped, 1.5-3 mm long, numerous, along 2 lines on fruit wall.
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Distribution
A cosmopolitan genus of about 200 species.
Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America|