Capparaceae
Cleome serrulata
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Herb |
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Rocky Mountain Beeplant on:
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| Other Names for this Plant |
stinking clover, Spiderplant, Bee Spiderflower
Native to North America from From Illinois and Missouri to Saskatchewan westward to Washington and southward to west Texas at elevations under 8,500 ft.
This plant is an erect, branched annual (reproduce from seed every year) that grows to about 3 ft. tall in our area. Each leaf has a stalk (petiole) and three narrow leaflets whose margins may be entire or minutely serrulate (toothed). Dozens of bright, pink to purplish flowers are crowded into rounded or rather elongate spikes. Flowers are about 1/2 inch long and atop long pedicels. The stamens (pollen-bearing organs) are longer than the flowers, giving the spikes a fuzzy appearance. Fruit is a narrow capsule up to 2 inches long that bears several to many dark, ovoid seeds. |
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What's This?
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Order of Mustard |
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Main, Real, Two First-Leaves (Dicots) |
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Real, Two First-Leaves (Dicots) |
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Half Capsule Seed Division |
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Magnolia Division |
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Seed Plants |
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Multiple Spore Sub-Kingdom |
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Multicellular Land Plants |
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Cells with a Nucleus |
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Medicinal Uses: Beeplant leaves may have been crushed and placed on bites from poisonous insects.
Some Native Americans boiled the leaves as food as well as to treat stomach aches
A poultice is made of the crushed leaves and used to reduce swelling and boiled with a rusty iron to be made into a drink to treat anemia
Food Uses: The leaves and flowers were boiled and eaten by the natives of New Mexico and Arizona. Early Spanish Americans made tortillas from the barely palatable but nourishing seeds.
Other Notes: Used as a dye for wool . Use whole plant. Colors: gold, yellow, tan Mordants: Chrome, tin and iron
The flowers produce large amounts of nectar, much to the delight of bees, and provide us its common name, and the seeds often consumed by morning doves
Rocky Mountain Beeplant
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Rocky Mountain Beeplant
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Rocky Mountain Beeplant
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| Comment:
Rocky Mountain Beeplant, Cleome serrulata |
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