Botanical name: Cleome speciosa    Family: Cleomaceae (Spider Flower family)
Synonyms: Cleoserrata speciosa, Cleome speciosissima

Showy Spider Flower is an annual herb, 0.5-1.5 m tall. Inflorescences are 15-50 cm (20-60 cm in fruit), glandular velvet-hairy; bracts narrowly ovate-heart-shaped, 0.3-1.8 cm. Flower-stalk 1-5 cm, hairless. Sepals are green, lanceshaped, 4-7 x 0.8-1.2 mm, equal, distinct, persistent. Petals are brilliant pink to purple but fading to pink or white by second day, rarely initially white, ovate, 1.5-4.2 × 0.8-1.1 cm, clawed. Stamens arise from about 4 mm above the sepals, a character that clearly distinguishes it from Brazilian Spider Flower. In Brazilian Spider Flower the stamens arise from right next to the sepals. Stamens are 4-8.5 cm; anthers 6-10 mm. Pistil 6-10 mm; style 1-1.2 mm. Stems are simple or sparsely branched, fluted, hairless or sparsely glandular velvet-hairy. Leaf-stalk 2-12 cm, glandular velvet-hairy; leaflets (3 or)5-9; leaflet blades narrowly lanceshaped-elliptic, 6-15 x 1-5 cm, both surfaces hairless to glandular velvet-hairy, base narrowed, margin entire or minutely toothed, tip tapering. Showy Spider Flower is native to Mexico to Nicaragua, cultivated worldwide. Flowering: August-November.

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The flower labeled Showy Spider Flower is ...