Spider Flowers
Cleome
Cleome is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cleomaceae, commonly known as spider flowers, spider plants, spider weeds, or bee plants. Previously, it had been placed in the family Capparaceae, until DNA studies found the Cleomaceae genera to be more closely related to the Brassicaceae than the Capparaceae. Cleome and clammyweed (Polanisia dodecandra) can sometimes be confused.
The genus sensu stricto includes about 170 species of herbaceous annual or perennial plants and shrubs. The genus has a subcosmopolitan distribution throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. However, a recent DNA study failed to separate Cleome, Podandrogyne, and Polanisia from each other, so some taxonomists have abandoned the last two of these genera, treating them as part of Cleome sensu lato; in this case, Cleome contains about 275 species, the vast majority of the Cleomaceae.
60 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Spider flower
speciesCleome houtteana
Purple Cleome
speciesCleome rutidosperma
Asian Spiderflower
speciesCleome viscosa
Spiderwisp
speciesCleome gynandra
Singleleaf Spindlepod
speciesCleome monophylla
Spiny Spider-flower
speciesCleome spinosa
Slenderleaf Clammyweed
speciesCleome aldenella
Prickly Spiderflower
speciesCleome aculeata
Spotted Cleome
speciesCleome maculata
Yellow Mouse Whiskers
speciesCleome angustifolia
Cleome anomala
speciesCleome anomala
Hairy Spindlepod
speciesCleome hirta
Tarenaya longicarpa
speciesTarenaya longicarpa
Pretty Lady
speciesCleome rubella
Leafy Spindlepod
speciesCleome foliosa
Cleome violacea
speciesCleome violacea
Cleome amblyocarpa
speciesCleome amblyocarpa
Mexican clammyweed
speciesCleome uniglandulosa
Cleome conrathii
speciesCleome conrathii
Cleome pallida
speciesCleome pallida
Cleome serrata
speciesCleome serrata
Cleome brachycarpa
speciesCleome brachycarpa
Cleome macrophylla
speciesCleome macrophylla
Cleome oxyphylla
speciesCleome oxyphylla
Elegant Spindlepod
speciesCleome elegantissima
Cleome droserifolia
speciesCleome droserifolia
Cleome rupicola
speciesCleome rupicola
Cleome cordobensis
speciesCleome cordobensis
Cleome suffruticosa
speciesCleome suffruticosa
Cleome tenuis
speciesCleome tenuis
Cleome chelidonii
speciesCleome chelidonii
Cleome chilensis
speciesCleome chilensis
Cleome simplicifolia
speciesCleome simplicifolia
Cleome arabica
speciesCleome arabica
Cleome felina
speciesCleome felina
Cleome titubans
speciesCleome titubans
Cleome uncifera
speciesCleome uncifera
Cleome africana
speciesCleome africana
Cleome guianensis
speciesCleome guianensis
Cleome boliviensis
speciesCleome boliviensis
Cleome daghestanica
speciesCleome daghestanica
Cleome angulata
speciesCleome angulata
Cleome noeana
speciesCleome noeana
Cleome cleomoides
speciesCleome cleomoides
Cleome aspera
speciesCleome aspera
Cleome speciosa
speciesCleome speciosa
Cleome lechleri
speciesCleome lechleri
Cleome coluteoides
speciesCleome coluteoides
Cleome circassica
speciesCleome circassica
Cleome scaposa
speciesCleome scaposa
Cleome rosea
speciesCleome rosea
Cleome carnosa
speciesCleome carnosa
Cleome tetrandra
speciesCleome tetrandra
Iberian Spiderflower
speciesCleome iberica
Cleome chrysantha
speciesCleome chrysantha
Cleome gigantea
speciesCleome gigantea
Cleome pilosa
speciesCleome pilosa
Cleome hemsleyana
speciesCleome hemsleyana
Cleome austroarabica
speciesCleome austroarabica
Magnificent Spiderflower
speciesCleome magnifica
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Cleome in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 56751.