Scientific Name: Cleome hassleriana
Common Name: spider flower
Family Name: Cleomaceae
Origin: South America
Hardiness Zone: Zone 8a: (-12 to -9.5 °C)
Plant Type: Annual
Mature Size: 0.7 - 1.3m x 0.3 - 0.6m (height x width)
Habit: Upright
Form: Vase
Texture: Medium
Landscape Uses: Attract birds, Attract butterflies, Bedding plant, Container planting, Fall interest, Filler, Summer interest
Exposure: Full sun
Soil or Media: Well-drained
Leaves: Compound, Alternate, Soft flexible, Lustrous, Pubescent, Digitate (palmate), Elliptic, Ciliate, Entire
Flowers: Raceme, White, Purple, Pink, Jun-Jul-Aug-Sep-Oct
Fruit: Capsule, Green, Dark-red, Brown, Sep-Oct-Nov
Key ID Features:
Leaves aromatic, sticky, palmate with 5-7 elliptic leaflets, spiny stipules; florets spider-like with protruding stamens, in dense elongated terminal racemes of pink, purple or white, from summer to frost; fruits long and thin, pod-like capsules, green ripening to reddish-brown.