Cleome lutea
Hook.
Yellow Spiderflower, Jones spiderflower
Meise Botanic Garden
What to Eat
Edible parts: Leaves, Seed, Shoots
Edible leaves, flowers, and seeds, but the flavor is intense and often unpleasant. Best boiled with water discarded, then used sparingly or dried for storage. Edible Uses & Rating Leaves, flowers, and seeds are considered edible, but the rating is constrained by palatability. As a food plant it is best treated as a “famine-to-functional” resource: usable, sometimes valuable, but rarely desirable as a main ingredient. Its strongest practical role is as a bulk green that can be boiled, drained, and dried for later use, especially when whole plants can be harvested efficiently. Taste, Processing & Kitchen Notes: Fresh yellow beeplant is intensely pungent and spicy in both aroma and taste. The raw flavor is often strong enough to overwhelm milder ingredients, and even boiling only reduces intensity rather than transforming it into something gentle. After boiling, it can still read as sharp and “vegetal-spicy,” with a persistent, somewhat rancid-green note that some people find hard to tolerate. The best kitchen approach is to boil it thoroughly, discard the water, and then use small amounts mixed into soups or stews where other strong flavors can share the load. Drying boiled greens creates a storable product, but drying should be done with good ventilation because the plant’s odor can linger. Seasonality (Phenology): Yellow beeplant can appear and remain productive for a long season in response to rainfall, commonly blooming from spring into autumn. Tender greens are most practical earlier in growth, before plants become coarse and before pods are fully developed. Seeds mature later, after the long flowering period, and may be available across much of the warm season depending on the timing of moisture. Safety & Cautions (Food Use): While the plant is considered edible, it is strongly flavored and can be hard on the stomach for some people when eaten in large quantities. Because it often grows in disturbed areas, site hygiene matters: avoid roadside spray zones, contaminated washes, and places with heavy livestock or pet impacts. Cooking and discarding the water is the most conservative approach for greens. Harvest & Processing Workflow: Harvest young leafy tops or whole tender plants before they become coarse. Boil thoroughly, then discard the water to reduce intensity, and either eat in small mixed portions or dry the cooked greens for later use. If collecting seeds, allow pods to mature and dry, then gather and thresh; expect the seeds to carry less pungency than the greens but still to be challenging in flavor. Cultivar/Selection Notes: Varietal distinctions are sometimes made based on size traits, but for foraging and basic use, these distinctions matter less than growth stage and habitat cleanliness. Look-Alikes & Confusion Risks: Within the Southwest, beeplants are fairly distinctive: palmately compound leaves, four-petaled flowers with prominent stamens, and long, slender pods. Other Cleome/Peritoma species occur regionally, but confusion is usually not dangerous. The more practical “confusion risk” is assuming the pods will behave like green beans; they generally do not. Traditional / Indigenous Use Summary: Beeplants were known and used in the Southwest, with processing methods that emphasize boiling and drying to create storable foods. Their role is best understood as a reliable seasonal resource that can be preserved, rather than a prized fresh vegetable. Young shoots - cooked. Seed - ground into a meal and used as a flour.
Known Hazards
Where to Find It
Western N. America - Nebraska to Washington and Arizona.
NORTHERN AMERICA: United States (Nebraska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana (s.c.), Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, New Mexico (west), California (east), Nevada, Utah), Mexico (Baja California (Norte))
How to Identify
Cleome lutea is a ANNUAL growing to 1.2 m (4ft). See above for USDA hardiness. It is hardy to UK zone 4 and is frost tender. It is in flower from July to August. The species is hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs). Suitable for: light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils and prefers well-drained soil. Suitable pH: mildly acid, neutral and basic (mildly alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers dry or moist soil.
How to Grow
Yellow beeplant is edible, abundant, and easy to identify, but strongly flavored. Its best role is as a processed green used in small amounts or preserved as dried material, and as a major pollinator plant in desert and semi-desert landscapes. Growing Conditions: This species thrives in hot, open sites with disturbed or periodically flooded soils. It is well adapted to arid climates and can capitalize on brief moisture pulses. It tolerates poor soils, heat, and exposed conditions, which is part of why it is such a dependable “presence plant” in the Southwest. Habitat & Range: Yellow beeplant is widespread across the Southwest in fields, washes, watercourses, floodplains, and disturbed ground. It is especially characteristic of places where water briefly flows through desert landscapes, leaving behind fresh, open substrate. Size & Landscape Performance: Plants can be tall and conspicuous, with strong floral display and high visibility from a distance when in bloom. In landscaping, it can function as a dramatic seasonal native flower for hot, dry gardens, though odor and self-seeding should be considered. Cultivation (Horticulture): Beeplants are easy to grow from seed and are well-suited to arid-region gardens, pollinator strips, and restoration-style plantings. They generally prefer full sun and open soil and can be encouraged by light disturbance. For food-oriented cultivation, the main reason to grow it would be reliability and biomass rather than flavor. Pests & Problems: Plants can be plagued by insects, fungal issues, and general “desert wear” as the season progresses. For food use, this means clean harvest can be challenging and reinforces the usefulness of cooking greens before drying for storage. Pollination: Pollinated mainly by bees and other insects attracted to abundant nectar and pollen. The long flowering season makes it a dependable pollinator plant during warm months. Identification & Habit: Yellow beeplant is an upright annual with an obvious “spiderflower” look: terminal racemes of four-petaled flowers with long stamens, and many narrow seedpods (siliques) dangling from the flower stalks. Leaves are palmately compound, typically with four to five leaflets, and the whole plant carries a distinctive odor typical of the cleome family. It favors open, sunny ground and often appears in washes, flood-scoured flats, roadsides, and disturbed soils where it can form noticeable colonies. Prefers a light fertile soil in a warm dry sunny position with plenty of room to spread. A frost tender plant, it can be grown as a summer annual in Britain. FAMILY: Cleome family (Cleomaceae) – Cleome / Peritoma genus. COMMON NAMES: Yellow beeplant, yellow spiderflower. USDA Hardiness Zones: Approx. Zones 4–10. Typical Size: About 30–170 cm tall; upright annual from a taproot.
Propagation: Seed - surface sow or only lightly cover the seed in spring in a greenhouse. The seed usually germinates in 5 - 14 days at 25°c. When large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in late spring. Daytime temperatures below 20°c depress germination, but a nighttime fall to 20° is necessary. Plants can produce large quantities of seed and often self-seed readily in suitable sites. Seeds typically germinate with warmth and moisture, especially after seasonal rains.
Medicinal Uses
Stings. The plant has been used to treat ant bites.
Other Uses
Dye. Yields a black dye. No further details are given, but it is probably obtained by boiling down the whole plant. Beeplants are notable pollinator resources, drawing bees and other insects in large numbers during their long bloom window. They can provide important nectar and pollen in landscapes where flowering resources are patchy. Colonies also contribute seasonal cover and structure for insects. For food-oriented cultivation, the main reason to grow it would be reliability and biomass rather than flavor. In landscaping it can function as a dramatic seasonal native flower for hot, dry gardens, though odor and self-seeding should be considered.
Names & Synonyms
Yellow Beeplant or Spiderflower (Cleome lutea = Peritoma lutea. Yellow spiderflower.
