Cleome burmannii
Wight & Arn., Prodr. 1: 22. 1824; Hook. f. & Thomson in
Fl. Brit. India 1: 170. 1872.
Herbs, erect, up to 50 cm high; stems much-branched, somewhat flattened, ribbed, clothed, with scattered soft 0.5 - 2.5 mm long prickles. Lower petioles 2.5 - 4 cm long upper smaller; leaflets 3 - 5, ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, cuneate and webbed at base, acute, subacute or subrounded at apex, faintly crenate-serrulate along margins, 2 - 6 x 0.4 - 1.8 cm, membranous, glabrous; petiolules up to 1 mm long. Flowers white (rarely purple), axillary, solitary; pedicels 5 - 18 mm long, glandular hairy. Sepals lanceolate, acuminate. Petals elliptic-oblong, 2 - 4 x 0.8 - 1.2 mm. Gynopbore short, 0.5 - 1.5 mm, elongating up to 4 - 7 mm after fertilisation; ovary 1.5 - 2 mm long, glabrous. Capsules linear, terete, torulose, glabrous, 3.5 - 4.5 cm long, 1 - 1.5 mm thick, narrowed at both ends, beaked; seede; 10 - 15, reddish-brown, 1.2 - 1.4 mm across, with concentric ribs and closed cleft, without elaiosome.
Fl. & Fr. May - June, Jan.
Distrib. India: In wastelands, up to 600 m, rare. Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endangered.
Sri Lanka and Indonesia (Java).
Notes. Extremely rare and probably on way to extinction. Besides type, the only other historic collection from Peninsular India is Koenig's specimen from Ramanatha-puram in Tamil Nadu. Venkobarao had collected it from Shenkotta along Kerala-Tamil Nadu border in 1914. Ellis in 1962 had collected it from Tanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. Reports of its collection from Gujarat (Shah, Fl. Gujarat 1: 71. 1978), Kerala (Manilal &. Sivarajan, Fl. Calicut 34. 1983) and reports from other parts of Tamil Nadu are misidentifications of C. rutidosperma (Sundara Raghavan in J. Econ. Tax. Bot. 5: 463 - 464. 1984).
Fl. & Fr. May - June, Jan.
Distrib. India: In wastelands, up to 600 m, rare. Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endangered.
Sri Lanka and Indonesia (Java).
Notes. Extremely rare and probably on way to extinction. Besides type, the only other historic collection from Peninsular India is Koenig's specimen from Ramanatha-puram in Tamil Nadu. Venkobarao had collected it from Shenkotta along Kerala-Tamil Nadu border in 1914. Ellis in 1962 had collected it from Tanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. Reports of its collection from Gujarat (Shah, Fl. Gujarat 1: 71. 1978), Kerala (Manilal &. Sivarajan, Fl. Calicut 34. 1983) and reports from other parts of Tamil Nadu are misidentifications of C. rutidosperma (Sundara Raghavan in J. Econ. Tax. Bot. 5: 463 - 464. 1984).
RELATED IMAGES
