Family Cleomaceae
Description: Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs, rarely shrubs; glabrous or indumentum of simple glandular or eglandular hairs; stems sometimes armed.
Leaves alternate, usually palmately compound, sometimes simple; stipules usually present; leaflets usually 3–7; venation pinnate.
Inflorescence axillary or terminal, a raceme or corymb, sometimes flowers solitary, usually bracteate. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic to slightly zygomorphic. Sepals 4, free or fused basally, sometimes deciduous; petals 4, free, equal or unequal, variously coloured. Stamens 6–27 (–35), sometimes some or all reduced to staminodes; filaments free or basally fused to gynophore, nectaries sometimes associated with stamens; anthers dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Gynoecium usually 1- or 2-carpellate. Ovary superior, 2-locular, ovules 1–many per locule; style 1, stigma capitate; placentation parietal.
Fruit usually a dry pedicellate capsule, usually dry lateral valves, with a persistent, thin, hoop-like woody placenta. Seeds reniform or horseshoe-shaped to coiled or conduplicate, smooth to tuberculate, often without an aril.
Distribution and occurrence: Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 25 genera and c. 270 species, mainly in tropical to warm-temperate regions. Australia: 6 genera, c. 22 species (5 naturalised) WA, Cocos Is., Christmas Is., Ashmore Reef, NT, SA, Qld, NSW.
External links:
Wikipedia This family is the subject of ongoing research. Generic boundaries have been revised in recent years, with N.S.W. species formerly placed in Cleome now in Arivela, Sieruela or Tarenaya; further changes are possible. K.L. Gibbons, 12 May 2023.
Text by Andre Messina, adapted by Kerry Gibbons, 12 Apr. 2023
Taxon concept: APG IV. Flora of Australia [accessed 12 Apr. 2023]. Distribution and occurrence: Flora of Australia, Australian Plant Census [both accessed 12 Apr. 2023].
| | Key to the genera | |
| 1 | Petals entire; leaves mostly 5–7-foliolate, rarely 3-foliolate or leaves simple; capsule linear, not inflated | 2 |
| Petals notched or cut into narrow lobes; leaves 3-foliolate; capsule linear-oblong, inflated | Polanisia |
| 2 | Leaves palmately compound with 3–7 leaflets | 3 |
| Leaves simple
Back to 1 | Sieruela |
| 3 | Stipules absent; capsule glandular-pubescent | Arivela |
| Stipules spinescent; capsule glabrous
Back to 2 | Tarenaya |
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