Cleome gynandra
L., Sp. Pl. ed. 1. 671. 1753. Gynandropsis pentaphylla (L.) DC. Prodr. 1: 238. 1824; Hook. f. & Thomson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 171. 1872.
Herbs, annual erect, up to 1.2 m high, strongly foetid; stems branched, glandular pubescent, sparsely beset with transluscent coarse hairs. Leaves 3 - 5 (-7)-foliolate, ca 7.5 x 6.5 cm; leaflets unequal, obovate-elliptic, oblanceolate or rhombate, cuneate at base, acute at apex, entire to denticulate-serrulate along margins; central leaflets 1 - 7 x 0.4 - 4 cm, lateral leaflets up to 3.5 x 1.5 cm; dry leaflets glaucous; petioles 3 - 15 cm long, densely glandular puberulous; petiolules webbed, up to 3 mm long, sulcate. Inflorescence lax, many-flowered corymbose racemes, 10 - 30 cm long; bracts foliaceous, trifoliolate, 8 - 25 mm long, much reduced and sessile upwards. Flowers white or creamy yellow (rarely pink), 1 - 2 cm across; pedicels filiform, 0.2 - 2.5 cm long, pubescent. Sepals ovate, obovate, elliptic or oblanceolate, acuminate, 1.5 - 5 x 0.5 - 1.5 mm, puberulous, caducous. Petals obovate to oblanceolate, subequal, 3 - 18 x 1 - 6 mm; claw filiform, as long as limb. Androphore 1 - 25 mm long; stamens 6, purple; filaments subequal, 1.4 - 2 cm long, stiff and somewhat spreading; anthers linear, ca 2 mm long. Gynophore 0 - 2 cm long, elongating to 3.5 cm in fruits; ovary sessile among stamens or on up to 2 cm long gynophores, oblong-cylindric, 2.5 - 4 x 0.5 mm, elongating after fertilisation, green or purplish green, shortly glandular-pubescent; style 1 - 1.2 mm long; stigma discoid, depressed at apex, purple. Capsules erecto-patent, cylindrie or compressed-terete, tapering at both ends, striate, 3 - 12 cm long, 4 - 8 mm thick, sticky glandular-pubescent; stalk 2 - 4 cm long; valves papery; seeds 15 - 40, reniform, compressed, 1 - 1.8 mm across, longitudinally and concentrically striate, with low cristate transverse ridges, rugulose to tuberculate with shallow narrow and open cleft, dark brown or black.
KEY TO THE VARIETIES
| 1a. Plants 30 - 120 cm high; androphore exceeding 6 mm long; ovary green | 8.1. gynandra |
| b. Plants stunted under 15 cm high; androphore less than 2 mm long; ovary purplish green | 8.2. nana |
