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Cleome multicaulis
(Slender spiderflower)
[taxon report][distribution map][photos][line drawing]
Family: Capparaceae
Scientific Name: Cleome multicaulis de Candolle
Synonyms: Cleome sonorae A. Gray; Peritoma sonorae (A. Gray) Rydberg
Vernacular Name: Slender spiderflower
R-E-D Code: 2-2-1
Description: Annual; stems slender, erect, up to 60 cm tall; leaves sessile or with short stalks, palmately compound, leaflets 3, elliptic, slender, folded, 2 mm wide or less; flowers in axils of stem leaves, petals pink or white, 4-7 mm long; pods elongate, up to 20 mm long and 4 mm wide; smooth, circular in cross section, with a narrow stalk-like base; pods bent abruptly downward at the juncture of the pod's narrow base and the pedicel. Flowers August to September.
Similar Species: The widespread and common C. serrulata (Rocky Mountain bee-plant) has narrowly elliptic leaflets, 5-15 mm wide and flowers 8-13 mm long.
Distribution: New Mexico, Grant County; Wyoming, south-central Colorado, southeastern Arizona, western Texas; Mexico.
Habitat: Wet, saline or alkaline soils; often in and around alkali sinks, alkaline meadows, or old lake beds.
Remarks: The slender spiderflower has not been seen in New Mexico since 1851. The single New Mexico collection was taken at "the mouth of the Mimbres River" by Charles Wright during the Mexican Boundary Survey. References to another Wright collection in New Mexico "in the Valley of the Rio Grande, below Doņa Ana" are most likely based on a mix-up in interpretation of early, incomplete, printed labels. This is a rare, but widespread wetland species. There are several populations in south-central Colorado and the species has been found recently in Wyoming.
Conservation Considerations: Many wetlands in the southwest have been destroyed and the few remaining continue to be seriously threatened by various human uses. Continued searches are needed for this species in New Mexico.
Important Literature (*Illustration):
Iltis, H. 1958. Studies in the Capparidaceae V. Capparideaceae of New Mexico. Southwestern Naturalist 3:133-144.
*New Mexico Native Plants Protection Advisory Committee. 1984. A handbook of rare and endemic plants of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Information Compiled By: Ken Heil, Joey Herring, 1999; last updated, 2002
Agency Status:
