Spiny spider-flower is a white-flowered relative of the familiar garden cleome, native to the Caribbean and tropical Central and South America, including Puerto Rico. The pink-and-purple spider flower in American gardens is usually a different species (Cleome houtteana) that was long sold under this name. Its flowers open in the evening, and a study in Brazil found bats pollinating them.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A woody-based herb or shrub that can reach about 9 ft (2.8 m).
- Flowers
- Petals are white to pale pink or lavender, with long purple stamens sticking far out of the flower. Young buds and pods are slightly sticky with .
- Flowering time
- In the Caribbean and Central America it has been collected in flower and fruit from April to November. The flowers open in the evening.
- Fruit
- Long, slender pods hang down from the side branches.
Look-alikes
Garden spider flower usually has pink or purple petals (sometimes white) that are pale in bud and turn deep pink once open, fading again by the next morning. Spiny spider-flower has white or greenish-white petals, and its sepals, ovary, and pods are sticky with glandular hairs, while those parts are smooth on the garden plant.
Why they get mixed upThey look alike and shared the same scientific name in gardening for a long time.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Stream valleys
- Open ground near the sea
- Roadsides
- Weedy fields
- Range
- Native to the Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba, Dominica, and others), Central America, and tropical South America. Some references list it as introduced to the United States, but many US records under this name were really the garden spider flower, so how widely it grows wild there is unclear.
- Preferred conditions
- Grows on disturbed roadsides, weedy fields, stony ground, dry river gravel, and the edges of dry tropical forest.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Also known as Tarenaya spinosa. Gardeners and older floras long applied the name Cleome spinosa to the common garden spider flower, now Cleome houtteana (also called C. hassleriana or Tarenaya hassleriana), so many garden references under this name are really about that plant.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
More species to explore
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