Cleome strigosa
(Bojer) Oliv.
CleomaceaeLeaves
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(c) Ehoarn Bidault, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Ehoarn Bidault, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) Ehoarn Bidault, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Ehoarn Bidault, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Leaves, Vegetable
The leaves are eaten as a cooked vegetable.
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. It grows in the lowlands. It grows up to 275 m above sea level.
Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania,
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. It grows each year from seeds. It has longs tiff hairs. The leaves have 3-5 leaflets. The leaflets are 5 cm long by 2.4 cm wide. The flower petals are mauve. The fruit capsules are 20-35 mm long by 2 mm. They are spreading or drooping.
Notes
There are about 150 Cleome species.
Names & Synonyms
Decastemon zanzibaricus KlotzschPolanisia strigosa Bojer
References (6)
- East African Herbarium records, 1981,
- 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 47, 48
- Jardin, C., 1970, List of Foods Used In Africa, FAO Nutrition Information Document Series No 2.p 68
- Martin, F.W. & Ruberte, R.M., 1979, Edible Leaves of the Tropics. Antillian College Press, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. p 181
- 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
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 77
