Plants 50-150 cm.
Stems unbranched or sparsely branched
; (fluted), glabrous or sparsely glandular-pubescent.
Leaves: petiole 2-12 cm ,(glandular-pubescent); leaflets 5-9, blade narrowly lanceolate-elliptic, 6-15 × 1-5 cm, margins entire or serrulate, apex subobtuse, surfaces glabrate to glandular-pubescent.
Racemes 15-50 cm (20-60 cm in fruit, glandular-pubescent); bracts unifoliate, ovate-cordate, 3-18 mm.
Pedicels 10-50 mm, (glabrous).
Flowers: sepals persistent, green, lanceolate, 4-7 × 0.8-1.2 mm, glandular-pubescent; petals usually brilliant pink to purple, fading to pink or white, rarely initially white, ovate, 15-42 × 8-11 mm, clawed; stamens green, 40-85 mm, (filaments adnate to gynophore 1/3-1/2 of length); anthers 6-10 mm; gynophore 30-85 mm in fruit (filament scars visible ca. 1/4 of length); ovary 6-10 mm; style 1-1.2 mm.
Capsules (irregularly contracted between seeds) 60-150 × 3-5 mm.
Seeds pale green to brown, 2.5-3.5 × 1-1.2 mm, tuberculate.
2n = 48. Flowering summer. Disturbed roadsides, vacant lots; 0-50 m; introduced; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.
Cleoserrata speciosa is widespread horticulturally (with white-flowered plants not uncommon). It strongly resembles
Tarenaya hassleriana (
Cleome hassleriana) to the untrained eye (W. R. Ernst 1963b); considering its unique floral morphology and cytology, it remains difficult to place.
