Cleome lutea
Encyclopedia
Cleome lutea is a species of cleome
known by the common names yellow bee plant and yellow spiderflower. This annual wildflower is native to the western United States where it is most common in desert scrub and plateau habitats. It is a sprawling plant often exceeding a meter in height. The erect stem has widely-spaced leaves all the way along, each leaf made up of three to five small leaflets. Atop the stem is a showy inflorescence
of many bright yellow flowers. Each flower has oblong petals around a cluster of long stamen
s tipped with knobby anthers. As the inflorescence lengthens at the top of the stem, flowers that have opened and been pollinated drop their petals and the ovary
develops into a fruit. The fruits are capsules several centimeters long containing many seeds. A flowering plant may have blooming flowers at the top of the stem and ripening capsules dangling off the stem further down.
Some Plateau Indian tribes drank an infusion from the branch and flowers of the yellow bee plant as a treatment for the cold
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Cleome
Cleome is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cleomaceae. Previously it had been placed in family Capparaceae, until DNA studies found the Cleomaceae genera to be more closely related to Brassicaceae than Capparaceae...
known by the common names yellow bee plant and yellow spiderflower. This annual wildflower is native to the western United States where it is most common in desert scrub and plateau habitats. It is a sprawling plant often exceeding a meter in height. The erect stem has widely-spaced leaves all the way along, each leaf made up of three to five small leaflets. Atop the stem is a showy inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
of many bright yellow flowers. Each flower has oblong petals around a cluster of long stamen
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
s tipped with knobby anthers. As the inflorescence lengthens at the top of the stem, flowers that have opened and been pollinated drop their petals and the ovary
Gynoecium
Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for all carpels in a flower. A carpel is the ovule and seed producing reproductive organ in flowering plants. Carpels are derived from ovule-bearing leaves which evolved to form a closed structure containing the ovules...
develops into a fruit. The fruits are capsules several centimeters long containing many seeds. A flowering plant may have blooming flowers at the top of the stem and ripening capsules dangling off the stem further down.
Some Plateau Indian tribes drank an infusion from the branch and flowers of the yellow bee plant as a treatment for the cold
Common cold
The common cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system, caused primarily by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Common symptoms include a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and fever...
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