Capparaceae » Cleome chelidonii Cleome rutidosperma

Dear Tabish,
This post is regarding correction in ID.



Earlier considered by me as Cleome chelidonii, is validated as Cleome rutidosperma.

My consideration was based on size of the flower in photo (it was about 1½ cm, relatively very large for the otherwise about 1 cm flower of C. rutidosperma).
(And of course, I do sometimes get ditched by WWW; searching for images of C. chelidonii show up a few images in results ... but now I see that most of them show up C. rutidosperma, misidentified).

Bkreeper (I do not yet know full name of my flickr friend, must be B. Kreeper) corrected my thoughts. In fact, some of the characteristic differences put in mail, makes me realize that either of the species can not be taken for other at all !!

Here is the excerpt of mail:

//// The shape of leaf and number of stamen is much different of this 2 plant. C. rutidosperma is about 6 but C. chelidonii is 40-65. C. rutidosperma is look like creeping on the ground even at young stage its stem is erect but branches spread on ground, but C. chelidonii is erect stem ... ////

Regards,
Dinesh.

Dear Dinesh,
   Good that it got sorted out. WWW can occasionally throw you on a wrong track. I also did not cross-check this one on my own, maybe I would have also picked up the wrong links.
   There is another crucial difference between the two species. C. chelidonii has 7-9 foliate leaves, whereas C. rutidosperma has 3-foliate leaves. Your picture unambiguously shows trifoliate leaves.
   Anyway, cheers for the correct identification!

Thanks much, Tabish.