Cleome elegantissima
Click on each image to see a larger version and details of the record (Click here to see images of this plant from Kyffhäuser)
Image 1
Habit
02 Apr 2015
Image 2
Leaves
02 Apr 2015
Image 3
Flower
02 Apr 2015
| Family: | Capparaceae |
| Full name: | Cleome elegantissima Briq. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | - |
| English common name(s): | - |
| Synonym(s): | Cleome confusa Dinter Cleome hirta auct. - sensu Gilg & Gilg-Ben. p.p.-- misapplied name Cleome welwitschii Exell |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Purple flowers with yellow band outlined by deeper purple. Erect, annual herb, 15-50 cm tall, branched, somewhat woody at the base. Stems striate, subglabrous to viscid glandular-hirsute. Leaves aromatic, (3-)5-7(-9)-foliolate, petiolate, decreasing in size upwards and passing gradually into the sessile bracts; petioles up to 5 cm long, glandular hispid; leaflets linear-oblong to linear oblanceolate, 0.8-3 cm long, 1-5 mm broad, subacute to rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base, glandular-puberulous, especially on the margins and the nerves below. Inflorescence a terminal raceme elongating considerably in fruit; bracts similar to the leaves but smaller, shortly petiolate to subsessile, 3-5-foliolate and with more rounded leaflets; pedicels slender, 7-17 mm long, glandular-puberulous. Sepals linear, 5-6 mm long, subulate, glandular-pubescent. Petals obovate-oblanceolate, 1.1-1.9 cm long, 3-6 mm broad, mauve to purple with a median yellow band outlined in deeper purple, rounded at the apex, narrowed at the base to a claw about one third the length of the petal. Stamens 10-11(-12), all fertile, mauve, the 2-4 lower longer and stouter, eventually exceeding the petals and with anthers 2.5 mm long, the remainder subequal to the petals with anthers 1.5-2 mm long. Ovary glandular-puberulous, 1 mm long, on a gynophore 2 mm long; style about 2 mm long; stigma subcapitate. Capsule narrowly linear, 5-8 cm long, 2-3 mm broad, straight, spreading; gynophore (8-)11-16(-21) mm long; valves glandular-pubescent with about 7 longitudinal nerves on each valve. Seeds brown, broadly comma-shaped, somewhat flattened, 1.5-2 mm in diameter, obscurely wrinkled. Fig. 16 : 6. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Southern Africa) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
