Cleomaceae: Beeplant Family. Identify plants and flowers.

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Cleomaceae: Caper Family Plant Identification Characteristics

Cleomaceae
Plants of the Beeplant Family

If you find a plant that looks like a hybrid between the Mustard and Pea families, it is likely a member of the Beeplant family. Beeplants are closely related to the Mustard Family, but resemble Pea family plants in the shape and curvature of the seed pods. Many species also have trifoliate or palmate leaves like clovers and lupines of the Pea family. Beeplants were formerly placed within the Caper family (Capparaceae), but genetic research places them closer to the Mustards than Capers, earning them a new family of their own.

Beeplants are mostly herbs or shrubs with trifoliate, alternate leaves, like those shown above. The flowers are regular or slightly irregular, and bisexual with 4 separate sepals, 4 separate petals, and 4 to numerous stamens. The ovary is positioned superior and consists of 2 united carpels with 1 or more kidney-shaped seeds. Worldwide, there are about 8 genera and 275 species, including about 6 genera in North America. Many species are adapted to desert or tropical conditions. Only Cleome and Polanisia are widespread across North America. Rocky Mountain bee plant (Cleome serrulata) is one of my favorite western roadside plants, growing in cheery purple patches that often string along the roadside for miles where there are sedimentary soils.

Key Words: Mustard-like flowers with pea-like pods.

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Cleome serrulata. Rocky Mountain Beeplant. An annual, native wildflower. Intermittently common across the Rocky Mountains. Often found along roadsides.	Cleome serrulata. Rocky Mountain Beeplant.
Cleome hasslerana. Spider Flower. An annual, cultivated flower, native to South America. Contributed by Mike McCracken of Alabama.	Foraging the Mountain West
Polanisia dodecandra. Redwhisker clammyweed.	Polanisia dodecandra. Redwhisker clammyweed. Tongue River, Eastern Montana.