''Cleomella arborea'' syn. ''Peritoma arborea'' (formerly '' Isomeris arborea'', syn. '' Cleome isomeris''), is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

shrub or bush in the spiderflower family (

Cleomaceae The Cleomaceae are a small family of flowering plants in the order Brassicales, comprising about 300 species in 10 genera, or about 150 species in 17 genera.Cleomaceae, Zhang Mingli (张明理)1; Gordon C. Tucker2, Harvard.edu/ref> These genera ...

) known by the common names bladderpod, bladderpod spiderflower and burro-fat.Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Pam MacKay, 2nd Ed. 2013, p. 230 It has yellow flowers in bloom all months of the year. It emits a foul odor to discourage herbivory from insects.

Range and habitat

''Cleomella arborea'' is commonly found along roadsides, desert dry washes, and flat areas up to , in the western

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

and Colorado Desert to Baja California Peninsula. It is native to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and Baja California Peninsula where it grows in a variety of habitats usually described as desert or brush. Peritoma_arborea_8240

Description

It is a densely branching shrub high covered with tiny hairs. Its stalked leaves are generally composed of three equal leaflets long, oval to elliptic in shape and pointed at the tip. The plant produces abundant

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s at the ends of the stem branches much of the year. The four

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...

s are fused about halfway from their base. Each flower has four bright yellow long petals, six protruding stamens with anthers. The style is or aborts before flowering. The fruit is a leathery prolate spheroid capsule long and wide on a stalk. It is smooth and green when new, aging to light brown. A typical inflorescence bears a number of flower buds at its tip, open flowers proximal to the buds, and maturing fruits which have shed their flowers below these. In the previous genus name, ''"Iso"'' means "equal", and ''"meris"'' means "part", referring to the stamens being of equal length.Torrey, J. & A. Gray. A flora of North America. 1838

1840 Events January–March * January 3 – One of the predecessor papers of the ''Herald Sun'' of Melbourne, Australia, ''The Port Phillip Herald'', is founded. * January 10 – Uniform Penny Post is introduced in the United Kingdom. * Janu ...

volume 1.page 12

/ref>

References

External links

*
Photo gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15519490 Cleomaceae Flora of the California desert regions Flora of Baja California Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of California Flora without expected TNC conservation status