Rocky Mountain Bee Plant Cleome serrulata
US Fish & Wildlife Service
Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR
6550 Gateway Road
Commerce City, CO 80022
Main Number: 303-289-0232
Visitor Center: 303-289-0930
Fax: 303-289-0579
Rocky Mountain bee plant also known as stinkweed because of its ill-scented smell, or spiderflower.
Annual that grows two to five feet in height.
Inflorescence (flowering part of the plant) is four petals, usually bright pink-purplish in color or sometimes a white, six long and slender stamens (the male reproductive organ on a flower).
Seed pods are three inches, hairy and hang downward on the stalk
Leaves are alternate, palmate (lobed, veined, divided from a common point i.e. fingers from a hand) divided into three leaflets.
Grows in sandy soils along roads, waste areas, meadows and rangelands.
Photo Credits: Sherry Skipper, USFWS
Bees and insects enjoy the rich nectar from the blossoms and the seeds often consumed by morning doves. When the leaves have matured, they are harvested, boiled and eaten as greens in ones diet. The seeds are edible and can be made into flour. A poultice is made of the crushed leaves and used to reduce swelling and boiled with a rusty iron to be made into a drink to treat anemia. Commonly used as a paint or dye, by extracting the pigment from
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