Cleome viscosa
(Asian spiderflower)

Preferred Scientific Name

• Cleome viscosa L.

Preferred Common Name

• Asian spiderflower

Other Scientific Names

• Arivela viscosa (L.) Raf.
• Arivela viscosa var. deglabrata (Backer) M.L.Zhang & G.C.Tucker
• Cleome acutifolia Elmer
• Cleome icosandra L.
• Cleome viscosa f. deglabrata (Backer) Jacobs
• Cleome viscosa var. nagarjunakondensis Sundararagh.
• Cleome viscosa var. parviflora Kuntze
• Cleome viscosa var. viscosa
• Polanisia icosandra (L.) Wight & Arn.
• Polanisia microphylla Eichler
• Polanisia viscosa (L.) Blume
• Polanisia viscosa (L.) DC.
• Polanisia viscosa var. deglabrata Backer
• Polanisia viscosa var. icosandra (L.) Schweinf. ex Oliv.
• Sinapistrum viscosum (L.) Moench

International Common Names

• English: caia; cleome; dog mustard; ground dove feed; tickweed; wild mustard; yellow cleome; yellow mesambay
• Spanish: barba de chivo; frijolillo; jitomate; malva pegajosa; plantanillo; sambo; tabaquillo
• French: acaya jaune; brède caya; collant; mouzambe jaune

Local Common Names

• China: huang hua cao
• Dominican Republic: frijol cimarrón; jitomate
• Germany: Klebrige Spinnenpflanze
• Indonesia: ancang ancang; mamang
• Jamaica: wild caia
• Japan: hime-futyoso
• Laos: sa phac son tien
• Malaysia: mamang kebo; mamang laki; mamang utan
• Philippines: apoi-apoian; silisian, hulaya
• Thailand: phak sian phee; phak som sian phee

EPPO code

• CLEVI (Cleome viscosa)
• PONVI (Polanisia viscosa)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Capparidales
•                         Family: Capparaceae
•                             Genus: Cleome
•                                 Species: Cleome viscosa

Cleome is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cleomaceae. Previously this genus had been placed in the family Capparaceae, until DNA studies found that Cleomaceae genera are more closely related to Brassicaceae than Capparaceae (Stevens, 2012). The APGII System allowed for Cleomaceae to be included in the Brassicaceae, and APGIII still recognises Cleomaceae for the genus Cleome. [N.B. Taxonomic tree is awaiting updating from Capparaceae to Cleomaceae.]

The family Cleomaceae includes about 12 genera and 250 species distributed in tropical and warm temperate regions (The Plant List, 2013). Members of this family are herbaceous or shrubby plants with palmately compound leaves; the flowers have four clawed petals, six stamens, and two carpels; the gynoecium has a gynophore, the stamens have long filaments, and the dehiscent fruit has a persistent, loop-like woody placenta that remains on the plant after the fruit valves have fallen off (Stevens, 2012).

The following description is taken from Flora of China Editorial Committee (2015):

C. viscosa is an annual herb, up to 160 cm tall. Stems simple or branched, ± glandular hirsute, viscous. Petiole 1.5–4.5(–8) cm, glandular hirsute; leaflets 3 or 5; leaflet blades ovate to oblanceolate-elliptic, (0.6–)2–6 × 0.5–3.5 cm, both surfaces glandular hirsute, margin entire to glandular ciliate, apex acute to obtuse. Inflorescences 5–10 cm but 10–15 cm in fruit; bracts 1–2.5 cm, palmately compound, 3-foliolate, often deciduous, glandular hirsute. Pedicel 0.6–3 cm, glandular hirsute. Inflorescences 3–6-flowered. Sepals green, equal, distinct, 5–10 × 0.8–1.2 mm, lanceolate, persistent, glandular hirsute, base cuneate, margin entire. Petals bright yellow, basally sometimes purple, arranged in an adaxial semicircle before anthesis but radially arranged at anthesis, 7–14 × 3–4 mm, oblong to ovate, clawed. Stamens (dimorphic, 4–10 adaxial ones much shorter with a swelling below anthers) green, 5–9 mm; anthers green, 1.4–3 mm. Pistil 6–10 mm, densely glandular; style 1–1.2 mm; stigma capitate. Fruit capsule 3–10 cm × 2–4 mm, strongly ridged longitudinally, dehiscing only partway from apex to base, glandular pubescent or essentially glabrous. Seeds 25–40 (up to 100) per capsule, light brown, 1.2–1.8 × 1–1.2 mm, compressed spherical, transversely finely ridged. 

There is very little information available about the history of introduction of C. viscosa, but it is highly probable that this species was introduced accidentally as a contaminant or as a weed in nursery materials (Holm et al., 1979). In the USA, it was recorded in the late 1800s. In the West Indies, herbarium collections shown that this species was first collected in 1878 in Martinique; 1882 in the U.S. Virgin Islands (i.e., St Thomas) and in 1892 in Guadeloupe (US Herbarium Collection). C. viscosa was already established on the Windward Caribbean Islands at the beginning of the 20th century (Burg et al., 2012). 

Soil reaction

• acid
• neutral

Soil texture

• light
• medium

C. viscosa spreads by seeds, which can be dispersed by wind, gravity, water, and as a contaminant in farm machinery, farm produce and soil, or adhered to human clothes or animal fur (Holm et al., 1979; PIER, 2015; PROTA, 2015). 

C. viscosa is a weed with economic impacts in crops such as rice and sugarcane, as well as being a problem in pastures and gardens (PIER, 2015; PROTA, 2015). 

C. viscosa is an environmental weed in woodlands, grasslands, ruderal sites, roadsides, and coastal forests where it has the potential to outcompete native vegetation (Kairo et al., 2003; Chandra, 2012; Randall, 2012; PIER, 2015; Rojas-Sandoval and Acevedo-Rodriguez, 2015).

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Has a broad native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Highly adaptable to different environments
• Is a habitat generalist
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Highly mobile locally
• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Fast growing
• Has high reproductive potential

• Damaged ecosystem services
• Ecosystem change/ habitat alteration
• Loss of medicinal resources
• Modification of successional patterns
• Monoculture formation
• Negatively impacts agriculture
• Reduced amenity values
• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of native species

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Competition - smothering
• Rapid growth

• Highly likely to be transported internationally accidentally
• Difficult to identify/detect as a commodity contaminant
• Difficult to identify/detect in the field

In tropical Africa, C. viscosa is occasionally used as a leaf vegetable. The bitter leaves are eaten fresh, dried or cooked. In India the seeds, which have a pleasant flavour, are used as a condiment substitute for mustard seed and cumin in the preparation of pickling spices, sausages, vegetables, curries and pulses. In Sumatra, the dried and powdered leaves and seeds are added to tobacco to enhance its narcotic properties (Windadri, 2001). In Asia (southern China, Guam, India), leaves and seeds are used medicinally to treat infections, fever, rheumatism and headaches (PROTA, 2015).