Cleome allamanii
Chiov.
CleomaceaeLeaves
gbif · cc-by-sa
Susan Brown
Susan Brown
gbif · cc-by-sa
Susan Brown
Susan Brown
gbif · cc-by-sa
Susan Brown
Susan Brown
What to Eat
Edible parts: Leaves, Vegetable
Leaves - cooked and eaten as a vegetable. The young shoots are collected, wilted, chopped and cooked alone or with other vegetables such as peas or amaranth and then served with a staple.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant. It grows in sandy and rocky places around Lake Turkana. In East Africa it grows between 360-1,050 m above sea level.
Africa, East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
A herb or climber. It can grow 1 m tall. The stems are covered with hairs. The leaves have 5-7 narrow leaflets. They are 1-3 cm long by 1-2 mm wide. The fruit are capsules 7-9 cm long.
Names & Synonyms
Erreso
Cleome grata Graham
References (5)
- Ferns, Useful Tropical Plants.
- Grubben, G. J. H. and Denton, O. A. (eds), 2004, Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. p 196
- Lulekal, E., et al, 2011, Wild edible plants in Ethiopia: a review on their potential to combat food insecurity. Afrika Focus - Vol. 24, No 2. pp 71-121
- Mutie, F. M., et al, 2023, Important Medicinal and Food Taxa (Orders and Families) in Kenya, Based on Three Quantitative Approaches. Plants 2023, 12, 1145
- World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
