FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 371 



The pickled flower buds of the European Capparis spinosa are the 

 familiar condiment, capers. It is reported that the Hopi and other 

 Indians use young plants of Cleome and Wislizenia as potherbs. 



Key to the genera 



1. Plant a shrub; leaves simple, entire; fruit berrylike 5. Atamisquea. 



1. Plants herbaceous; some or all of the leaves compound; fruit capsular (2). 

 2. Fruits didymous, indehiscent, the carpels divaricate, 1-seeded, becoming 

 coriaceous; leaves trifoliolate, rarely simple; flowers numerous, small; 



petals yellow 3. Wislizenia. 



2. Fruit not didymous, a 2-valved, thin-walled, dehiscent capsule, several- to 

 many-seeded (2). 

 3. Stamens 12 or more; herbage glandular-villous, very clammy; leaves 



trifoliolate ; petals whitish 4. Polanisia. 



3. Stamens 6; herbage not glandular (3). 



4. Capsules slender, cylindric, at least 1 cm. long; leaflets 3 or more; 



petals pink or yellow 1. Cleome. 



4. Capsules broad, more or less triangular or quadrangular, not more than 

 5 mm. long; leaflets 1 to 3; petals yellow 2. Cleomella. 



1. CLEOME. Spiderflower 



Herbage not glandular; stems mostly tall and branched; leaflets 3 

 to 5, entire or serrulate; petals clawed; stamens commonly 6, inserted 

 on a receptacle above the petals; capsule elongate, many-seeded, 

 long-stipitate. 



Key to the species 



1. Sepals separate or very nearly so, soon deciduous; leaves all very short-petioled 

 or subsessile; leaflets 3, narrowly linear, not more (usually less) than 3 cm. 

 long; petals pink or white, 4 to 5 mm. long; capsules 1 to 1.5 cm. long. 



1. C. SONORAE. 



1. Sepals united below, persistent; leaves all distinctly petioled; leaflets lanceolate, 

 oblanceolate, or oblong, usually more than 3 cm. long; petals not less than 

 6 mm. long; capsules seldom less than 2 cm. long (2). 



2. Petals purplish pink or white; leaflets 3 2. C. serrulata. 



2. Petals yellow; leaflets commonly more than 3 (3). 



3. Capsules less than 4 cm. long, the stipes not more than 1.5 cm. long; petals 

 light yellow, 6 to 7 mm. long; longer filaments 10 to 15 mm. long. 



3. C. LUTEA. 



3. Capsules 4 to 6 cm. long, the stipes up to 2.5 cm. long; petals golden 

 yellow, 10 to 13 mm. long; longer filaments 20 to 30 mm. long. 



4. C. jonesii. 



1. Cleome sonorae A. Gray, PL Wright, 2: 16. 1853. 



"Low subsaline grounds west of the Chiricahui Mts., Sonora'' 

 (now Arizona), the type collection (Wright), Willcox, "alkaline sink" 

 (Thornber 2231), August, Colorado, New Mexico, and southeastern 

 Arizona. 



2. Cleome serrulata Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 441. 1814. 



Peritoma serrulatum DC, Prodr. 1: 237. 1824. 



Apache County to Mohave and Yavapai Counties, 4,500 to 7,000 

 feet, chiefly at roadsides, June to September. Saskatchewan to 

 Kansas, Arizona, and Oregon. 



Rocky Mountain beeplant. Grows as a weed and appears as if 

 introduced in Arizona. Sometimes called skunkweed because of the 

 unpleasant odor of the crushed herbage. 



