Yellow spiderflower (Cleome lutea)
At a glance
- Lifecycle
- Annual
- Exposure
- Full sun
Cultivation
Prefers a light fertile soil in a warm dry sunny position with plenty of room to spread. A frost tender plant, it can be grown as a summer annual in Britain.
Propagation
Seed - surface sow or only lightly cover the seed in spring in a greenhouse.
Edible uses
Young shoots - cooked. Seed - ground into a meal and used as a flour.
Medicinal uses
The plant has been used to treat ant bites.
Material uses
Yields a black dye. No further details are given, but it is probably obtained by boiling down the whole plant[K].
Habitat
Sandy soils on desert plains to lower montane valleys, it is also found on sandy flatland.
Native range
Western N. America - Nebraska to Washington and Arizona.