Cleome Ornithopodioides

''Cleome ornithopodioides'' or bird spiderflower is the type species of the genus ''Cleome'' which is part of the family Cleomaceae or Brassicaceae. The species epithet means "birds-foot like" (ornithopodi + oides).

Description

''Cleome ornithopodioides'' is an annual plant growing to a height of .3 m.Plants For A Future
''C. ornithopodioides''
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Flowers possess both male and female reproductive organs.

Taxonomy

The first samples of bird spiderflower to arrive in Europe came from explorations of the area called Levant and were successfully cultivated by James Sherard in 1732. Hortus Kewensis (1812)
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Joseph Pitton de Tournefort named the Claude Aubriet illustration of ''C. ornithopodioides'' ''Sinapistrum Orientale'' in the 1700 ''Institutiones rei herbariæ''. Being named before the 1753 ''Species plantarum'' disqualifies the name from being considered to be a synonym.

When Carl Linnaeus first published this species with its current name in his 1753 ''Species plantarum'' he referenced descriptions of ''Sinapistrum Ornithopodiisiliquis'' found in Johann Christian Buxbaum's herbarium ''Plantarum minus cognitarum centuria'', that was published posthumously by Johann Georg Gmelin in 1728, Johann Jacob Dillenius's 1732 ''Hortus Ethamensis''. a collection whose list was published in 1907 by George Claridge Druce and also the description he wrote of ''Cleome ornithopodioides'' in his own ''Hortus Cliffortianus'' from 1737 and of ''Sinapestrum orientale triphyllum'' from his 1748 ''Hortus Upsaliensis''.

In 1754 when Philip Miller described the genus ''Sinapistrum'' in ''The Gardeners Dictionary'', he described the species with English words "Three-leav'd Eastern Sinapistrum, with Birds-foot-pods" and called it by the Latin name ''Sinapistrum Oriental triphyllum'' as it had been assigned by Tournefort who had described it before him.

Ecology

Native to the area of the eastern Mediterranean, ''C. ornithopodioides'' was described in 1865 as living in the wild along with ''Trifolium stellatum'' in a fertile valley at the foot of Mount Serbal.

Cultivation

Philip Miller wrote of the ease of cultivation of ''C. ornithopodioides'' in his 1754 ''The Gardeners Dictionary'': "...will thrive in open Air; so the Seeds of this may be sown on a Bed of light Earth in April (late Spring), where the Plants are to remain; and will require no other Culture, but to keep them clear from Weeds: in June (early Summer) they will flower, and the Seeds will ripen in August (late Summer); and the Plants will soon after perish." The Gardeners Dictionary (1754)
page 46-47
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Notes

References

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Taxonomy

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External links

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q5131674

ornithopodioides
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus