Yellow bee-plant

Cleome lutea Hooker, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 70, plate 25. 1830; Peritoma breviflora Wooton & Standley

Annuals, (15-)25-30 cm. Stems sparsely branched distally; glabrous or glabrate. Leaves: petiole 1.5-4.5 cm; leaflets 5 (proximal ones sometimes early deciduous), blade linear to elliptic, 1.5-4(-6) × 0.4-1.3 cm, margins serrate, apex long-acuminate, surfaces glabrous. Racemes 1-3 cm (6-40 cm in fruit); bracts unifoliate, spatulate, 2-15 mm. Pedicels 7-15 mm. Flowers: sepals persistent, connate ca. 1/2 of length, yellow, lanceolate, 1.6-2.6 × 0.8-1.2 mm, margins denticulate, glabrous; petals light yellow, oblong to ovate, 5-8 × 2-4 mm; stamens yellow, 10-15 mm; anthers 1.9-2.6 mm; gynophore 5-17 mm in fruit; ovary 3-6 mm; style 0.5-0.8 mm. Capsules not inflated, 15-40 × 2-5 mm, striate. Seeds 10-20, gray to black, triangular (sharply angled), 3-4 × 2.5-3 mm, rugose. 2n = 34.

Flowering spring-late summer. Dry sandy flats, desert scrub, roadsides; (100-)600-2400 m; Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Mexico (Baja California).