Cleome scaposa

Cleome scaposa DC., Prodr. 1: 239 1824. (syn: Cleome cordata Ehrenb. ex Schweinf.; Cleome ehrenbergiana Schweinf.; Cleome gracilis Edgew.; Cleome linearis Stocks ex T.Anderson; Cleome radula Fenzl; Gilgella scaposa (DC.) Roalson & J.C.Hall);
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Cape Verde to Central India: Burkina, Cape Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gulf States, India, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zaïre as per POWO;
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Egypt (SE-Egypt), Oman (Mascat & Oman), Saudi Arabia (C-Saudi Arabia, Hejaz, Asir), Yemen (Aden Desert, coastal Hadhramaut, Inner Hadhramaut, N-Inner Yemen, SW-Yemen, Tihama, W-Yemen), Qatar, Libya, Djibouti, Socotra, Somalia, Ethiopia, N-Kenya, Sudan, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, S-Saharan Mts., Cape Verde Isl. (Santo Antao Isl., Sao Vicente Isl., Sal Isl.), India (Himachal Pradesh, Indian Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra), Pakistan (Karachi, Sind, Baluchistan, N.W.Frontier Prov., Peshawar, Hazara, Pakistani Punjab, Rawalpindi) as per CoL;
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Annual herbs, strongly aromatic, about 10-60 cm tall. Stem erect, base woody, usually much branched, glandular or eglandular pubescent with setose scabrous hairs, branches slender, usually branched from the base. Leaves simple, broadly ovate-suborbicular, about 12-30 x 5-25 mm across, base cordate or rounded, margin ciliate, entire, apex retuse or rounded, green pubescent above, paler pubescent beneath, mibrib impressed above, slightly prominent beneath, lateral veins 2-4 on either side of the midrib, petiole pubescent, gradually shorter towards the shoot, subsessile to 20 mm long. Inflorescence racemes, slender, many flowered, lax and elongated in fruit, about 4-15 cm long. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, yellow, cream white to pinkish, about 3-4 mm across, bracteate at the lower flowers and ebracteate above, bracts foliaceous, pedicel filiform, slender, about 1-4 mm long, up to 8 mm long in fruits, sepals 4, equal, lanceolate-elliptic, valvate, free or slightly fused at the base, apex subacute, scabrous, glandular pubescent outside, about 1.5-2 mm across, petals 4, obovate-oblong, glabrous, about 2-3.5 x 1-1.5 mm across. Stamens 6, filament inserted on a discoid, glabrous, about 2 mm long, anthers ovoid. Ovary superior, bicarpellary, sessile, unilocular, about 2-2.5 x 0.5 mm across, stigma capitate. Fruit capsule, dehiscent, linear, about 20-30 x 1-1.2 mm across, glabrous or grandular, with persistent seed bearing replum. Seeds 15-25, orbicular or reniform, about 0.5-0.7 mm across, granulate, cleft fused between 2 ends, brownish black.
Arid and semiarid tracts along rivers, rocky slopes and sandy dunes, altitude up to 800 m.
(Attributions- Ganeshaiah, K. N., UAS, Bangalore, India.; Kailash, B. R., ATREE, Bangalore, India.; Royal Norwegian Embassy grants. Indian Bioresource Information Network (IBIN), Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, India as per India Biodiversity Portal)
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Cleome scaposa: 9 images- 7 high res.
Identification credit…Dr Rohit Patel
Savarkundla, Gujarat