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Vascular Plants of California
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Cleomaceae
SPIDERFLOWER FAMILY


Cleomaceae
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub, often ill-smelling. Leaf: generally 1-palmate, generally alternate, generally petioled; stipules generally minute, often bristle-like or hairy; leaflets 0 or 3--7. Inflorescence: raceme, head, or flowers 1, expanded in fruit; bracts generally 3-parted below, distal simple, or 0. Flower: generally bisexual, radial to +- bilateral; sepals generally 4, free or fused, generally persistent; petals generally 4, free, +- clawed; stamens generally 6, free, exserted, anthers generally coiling at dehiscence; ovary superior, generally on stalk-like receptacle, chamber generally 1, placentas generally 2, parietal, style 1, persistent, stigma generally minute, +- head-like. Fruit: 2 nutlets or generally capsule, septicidal; valves generally 2, deciduous, leaving septum (frame-like placentas) behind; pedicel generally +- reflexed to spreading.
Genera In Family: 13 genera, +- 150 species: widespread tropics to arid temperate. Note: Treated as Capparaceae in TJM (1993); species of Carsonia, Oxystylis, Peritoma, and Wislizenia moved to Cleomella (Roalson et al. 2015).
Jepson eFlora Author: Robert E. Preston & Staria S. Vanderpool
Reference: Iltis & Cochrane 2007 Novon 17:447--451; Roalson et al. 2015 Phytotaxa 205:129--144
Unabridged Reference: Ernst 1963 J Arnold Arbor 44:81--93
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin & Thomas J. Rosatti
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Cleomaceae

Previous taxon: Tuberaria guttata
Next taxon: Cleomella

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Citation for this treatment: Robert E. Preston & Staria S. Vanderpool 2023, Cleomaceae, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 12, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=93781, accessed on April 24, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 24, 2024.