Cleoserrata speciosa

(Raf.) Iltis

Spider plant

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(c) Aurelio Molina Hernández., some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Aurelio Molina Hernández.

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(c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Leaves

The leaves are cooked and used as a pot-herb and are highly palatable.

Where to Find It

A tropical plant. It is often along streams and grows up to 1,800 m above sea level. In Yunnan.

Africa, Asia, Central America, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, East Africa, Ethiopia, Fiji, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indochina, Jamaica, Mexico, Myanmar, North America, Pacific, Peru, Puerto Rico, SE Asia, South Africa, South America*, Southern Africa, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Venezuela, Vietnam, West Indies,

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Antigua & Barbuda, Armenia, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Bahrain, Burundi, Benin, Brunei, Bolivia, Brazil, Bahamas, Bhutan, Botswana, Belize, Canada, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Chile, Cameroon, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Algeria, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Micronesia, Gabon, Grenada, Georgia, French Guiana, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Haiti, Indonesia, Israel, India, Iraq, Iran, Jamaica, Jordan, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Kiribati, Comoros, St Kitts & Nevis, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, St Lucia, Sri Lanka, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Marshall Islands, Mali, Myanmar, Mongolia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Maldives, Malawi, Mexico, Malaysia, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Nepal, Nauru, New Zealand, Oman, Panama, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Palau, Paraguay, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, Seychelles, Sudan, Singapore, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, Suriname, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, El Salvador, Syria, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Thailand, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Tonga, Turkey, Trinidad & Tobago, Tuvalu, Taiwan, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, St Vincent, Venezuela, Vietnam, Vanuatu, Samoa, Yemen, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

A herb up to 1.5 m tall. The lower leaves are 6 pointed and like fingers on a hand. The flowers are white, pink or purple. The flowers are on an erect spike. It is covered with small leaflets. The fruit are seed pods which hang from long stems.

How to Grow

Plants can be grown by seeds.

Other Information

It is highly palatable.

Notes

There are about 150 Cleome species.

Names & Synonyms

Bee plant, Lerotho, Pak-sian-farang

Cleome gigantea BlancoCleome longifolia Willd. ex Schult. & Schult.f.Cleome speciosa Raf.Cleome speciosa Kunth [Illegitimate]Cleome speciosissima Deppe ex Lindl.Gynandropsis pentaphylla BlancoGynandropsis speciosa (Kunth) DC.

References (9)

Ambasta, S.P. (Ed.), 2000, The Useful Plants of India. CSIR India. p 253
Fl. ludov. 86. 1817
Grivetti, L. E., 1980, Agricultural development: present and potential role of edible wild plants. Part 2: Sub-Saharan Africa, Report to the Department of State Agency for International Development. p 49, 75
Kermath, B. M., et al, 2014, Food Plants in the Americas: A survey of the domesticated, cultivated and wild plants used for Human food in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. On line draft. p 243 (As Cleome speciosa)
Martin, F.W. & Ruberte, R.M., 1979, Edible Leaves of the Tropics. Antillian College Press, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. p 181
McMakin, P.D., 2000, Flowering Plants of Thailand. A Field Guide. White Lotus. p 13
Molla, A., Ethiopian Plant Names. http://www.ethiopic.com/aplants.htm (As Gynadropsis speciosa)
Pham-Hoang Ho, 1999, An Illustrated Flora of Vietnam. Nha Xuat Ban Tre. p 597
Plants of Haiti Smithsonian Institute http://botany.si.edu