Cleomaceae

Erect herbs or sometimes shrubs, annual or perennial; hairless or glandular-pubescent. Leaves alternate, spirally arranged, usually palmately compound, sometimes simple, petiolate; stipules usually present but falling early. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, usually racemose, sometimes flat-topped, or flowers solitary. Flowers usually bisexual (developmentally unisexual within sections of racemes), appearing zygomorphic; sepals 4, persistent or deciduous; petals 4, attached directly to receptacle; stamens 4 to many; filaments free or basally adnate to gynophore or androgynophore, hairless or pubescent; pistil 1; ovary 1-carpellate, 2-locular; style 1, straight, relatively short and , thick; stigma 1, capitate, unlobed. Fruits capsular or nutlets, usually stipitate from elongation of gynophore, erect to divergent, usually not inflated, indehiscent or dehiscent.

Comment: The genera in this family were long included in Capparaceae.

Worldwide: 2 genera and 224 species, one (Cleome) almost throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world and one (Cleomella) only in North America. .

Botswana: 1 genus and 12 taxa.