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Cleome gynandra
Also called African Spider Flower, Bastard Mustard, Cat's Whiskers, African Cabbage, Cat's Whisker, Spiderplant
Spiderwisp is an annual wildflower and leaf vegetable from Africa, often grown or harvested as a weed in tropical and subtropical regions. It grows easily in warm, well-drained, disturbed soil and tolerates drought.
Cleome gynandra is a species of Cleome that is used as a leaf vegetable. It is known by many common names including Shona cabbage, African cabbage, spiderwisp, cat's whiskers, and stinkweed. It is an annual wildflower native to Africa but has become widespread in many tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world.
Cleome gynandra is normally not a cultivated crop. Leaves are in most cases harvested from the plant found as naturally growing weed. However, some studies on the most suitable cultivation techniques have been conducted.
Cleome gynandra uses NAD-malic enzyme type C4 photosynthesis and has the characteristic traits associated with this, including changes in leaf biochemistry, cell biology and development. The family Cleomaceae is relatively close to Brassicaceae with Arabidopsis thaliana (a C3 photosynthetic plant) and therefore offers comparison with this well studied model organism. The C4 pathway in this species evolved independently from two other C4 Cleome species, C. angustifolia and C. oxalidea.
It is an annual wildflower native to Africa but has naturalized across tropic and sub-tropical regions across Africa, Asia and America. In those regions it grows at altitudes from 0 to 2400 m above sea level. It grows well in disturbed, well-drained soils, but is also drought-tolerant. It does not tolerate cold temperatures well, and is frost-tender. optimal growth conditions include temperatures between 18 °C and 25 °C, with high light intensity.
Typically, the leaves and shoots are eaten boiled or in stews. The leaves are often eaten in Sub-Saharan Africa, where they are often dried for storage, then cooked with milk or butter to reduce its bitter taste. In Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the leaves are cooked with groundnut paste.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cleome gynandra by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
