Common Name: SPIDERFLOWER FAMILY
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, simple above, 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: 17 genera, +- 150 species: widespread tropics to arid temperate. Note: Treated as Capparaceae in TJM (1993).
eFlora Treatment Author: Robert E. Preston & Staria S. Vanderpool
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Habit: Annual, generally glabrous. Stem: generally ascending to erect, sometimes prostrate when older, generally branched from base, often red-tinged. Leaf: generally many; petiole generally 7--20 mm; leaflets generally 3. Inflorescence: raceme, +- terminal, flowers 1 in leaf axils, or both; pedicel generally 4--25 mm. Flower: parts generally yellow; sepals fused in basal 1/3, generally entire; petals +- sessile, upper 2 often recurved. Fruit: 2--6 mm, often wider than long; septum elliptic to round; receptacle stalk-like. Seed: < 10.
Species In Genus: +- 10 species: arid western North America. Etymology: (Diminutive of Cleome)
Reference: Holmgren 2004 Brittonia 56:103--106