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Cleome viscosa L.

Cleomaceae · Egypt, Cape Verde +62

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
7.8°C
Record low 4.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
36°C
Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
632mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September (December to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cleome viscosa, the Asian spiderflower or tick weed is an annual herb that grows up to a meter high. It belongs to the family Cleomaceae. It is considered an invasive species and is widely distributed in warm and humid habitats across the Americas, Africa and Asia, and in Australia (where it is considered a native). It is commonly found during the rainy season.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cleome viscosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (457 mm of 579 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 29.3 °C against a yearly mean of 26.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

579 mm in the median year at the habitat, 457 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 150 mm, driest month August at 2 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 286 mm to 1,389 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 632 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 579 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 7.8 °C, the absolute minimum 4.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 6.3 °C to 22.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 36.0 °C in November and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 41 to 56% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -19 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cleome viscosa through the yearWarmest months November and December, mean daily high 36 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 13.7 °C; 579 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°43.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 30–47RH 41–56%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 559 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C35 / 30–3734 / 30–3634 / 30–3532 / 28–3429 / 23–3226 / 19–2926 / 19–2928 / 22–3132 / 27–3535 / 29–3736 / 29–3836 / 30–37
Night °C25 / 23–2625 / 22–2623 / 20–2521 / 16–2518 / 11–2515 / 7–2314 / 6–2216 / 8–2220 / 13–2323 / 17–2524 / 20–2625 / 22–26
Rain mm150 / 29–284144 / 34–24870 / 28–19121 / 14–11012 / 5–798 / 3–406 / 2–322 / 0–315 / 3–3421 / 10–6547 / 10–11693 / 25–196
DLI42 / 36–4940 / 36–4539 / 36–4237 / 34–3833 / 28–3530 / 25–3331 / 26–3436 / 31–3842 / 37–4346 / 42–4747 / 41–4944 / 38–50
RH %54 / 42–6456 / 44–6451 / 43–6346 / 43–6147 / 43–6048 / 43–5946 / 42–6043 / 39–6241 / 38–6343 / 39–6146 / 40–6251 / 41–63

Records on both sides of the equator: the 310 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 559 cells that remain: the 505 at least 10° south and the 54 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 559 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (610 records in those cells; 26 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2153:6218 (-17.675, 130.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 559 distinct grid cells holding 610 of the 1006 in-range records (26 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (310 cells poleward of 10° north, 505 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2153:6218 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -17.50_130.625, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 260 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 6370562 (Arivela viscosa (L.) Raf., 1998 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeEgypt, Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Sudan, Tanzania, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., New Guinea, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia · introduced: Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Kazan-retto, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Solomon Is., Fiji, Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, Mexico Gulf, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela, Colombia, Galápagos · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-17.121, 131.054 · in the densest population, 397 records (28% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1406 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 610 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1006 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1074 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 464 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 400 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 6370562 (Arivela viscosa (L.) Raf.): Kew's file holds it as Arivela viscosa (L.) Raf. (synonym under Cleome viscosa L.); 1,998 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1406 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Corymbia terminalis Corymbia terminalis Desert Bloodwood Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyEucalyptus leucophloia Eucalyptus leucophloia Snappy Gum Photo: CC BY, Lucas ChristofidesCucumis melo Cucumis melo Cantaloupe Photo: CC BY, Daniel J. LaytonSphaeranthus indicus Sphaeranthus indicus East Indian globe thistle Photo: CC BY, nirjesh gautamEucalyptus microtheca Eucalyptus microtheca Coolabah Photo: CC BY-SA, Robert WebsterCrotalaria medicaginea Crotalaria medicaginea Trefoil rattlepod Photo: CC BY, Petra Holland

Other Cleome 15 in the reference

Cleome aculeata Cleomaceae Cleome anomala Cleome anomala Cleomaceae Photo: CC BY, Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada Cleome densiflora Cleomaceae Cleome dodecandra Cleomaceae Cleome erosa Cleomaceae Cleome gigantea Cleomaceae Cleome gynandra Cleome gynandra Cleomaceae Photo: CC BY, Forest & Kim Starr Cleome monandra Cleomaceae Cleome monophylla Cleome monophylla Cleomaceae Photo: CC BY, J.M.GargCleome rutidosperma Cleome rutidosperma Cleomaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, PrennCleome speciosa Cleome speciosa Cleomaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt StüberCleome spinosa Cleome spinosa Cleomaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Hedwig Storch all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Polanisia viscosa var. genuina; Polanisia viscosa; Sinapistrum viscosum; Arivela viscosa; Corynandra viscosa. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Cleomaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Egypt, Cape Verde, Benin +61
Wild records
1406 in range · 1074 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Cleome viscosa L. (plant_name_id 2727669), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1998 records of GBIF's key 6370562, Arivela viscosa (L.) Raf. (Kew's file holds it as Arivela viscosa (L.) Raf. (synonym under Cleome viscosa L.)): the GBIF download; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -17.50_130.625, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 320133-2, POWO 320133-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 131 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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