TARENAYA
The majority of New World species classified in the
genus Cleome comprise a very large and diverse group
for which the name Tarenaya (Rafinesque, 1838: 111)
is available. Extreme variation occurs in plant size
and pubescence, flower color, and seed coat texture,
but the typical presence of spines and bracts and
characters of the disk and seeds unite these species.
The disks are obsolete or disciform or, if conic, nearly
always only slightly developed. The cleft of the mature
seed is covered for most of its length by a thin, fragile,
slightly shrunken membrane, and the cleft cavity
between the two claws is spherical, obovoid, or
oblong. The petals are usually unilateral and erect
in the open flower and narrowly clawed. The
chromosome numbers of Tarenaya are 2n 5 20 or
40 (Przywara, pers. obs.) or the specialized number 30
(Przywara, pers. obs.), apparently derived by chromosome
fusion in one subgroup (Przywara, pers. obs.).
Tarenaya is best represented in tropical lowlands and
arid plateaus at medium elevations in northern and
eastern South America (Eichler, 1865; Ruı´z Zapata &
Iltis, 1998) but ranges north to southern Mexico (Iltis,
1998) and the West Indies (Iltis, 1958, 2001).
Although recognizing that some two dozen species
presently assigned to Cleome have yet to be transferred
to Tarenaya for the first time, only one such
transfer is proposed here to ensure the name will be
available for the upcoming volume 7 of the Flora of
North America.
1. Tarenaya hassleriana (Chodat) Iltis, comb. nov.
Basionym: Cleome hassleriana Chodat, Bull.
Herb. Boissier 6, App. 1: 12. 1898. TYPE:
Paraguay. ‘‘Ad ripam fluminis pr. Apa, fl. Maj.,’’
E. Hassler 162 (holotype, G-BOIS).
This is the common cultivar known as the spiny
cleome (Cleome spinosa), but Cleome spinosa Jacquin
is a different species Iltis treats as Tarenaya spinosa
(Jacquin) Rafinesque. The latter is easily distinguished
by the presence of minute glandular puberulence
on the tips of the petals in bud and on the
youngest capsules and white petals except for
occasional intermediates between T. spinosa and T.
hassleriana from the West Indies and Venezuela (Iltis,
1952), in which they are pinkish or purplish. In T.
hassleriana the tips of the petals and capsules are
glabrous, and the petals are pale to deep pink or
purple or rarely white in horticultural varieties.
Native from northern Argentina (Burkart 8302, F,
G) to Minas Gerais, Brazil (Widgren 786, BR, C, K,
LE, M, PH, U), Tarenaya hassleriana occasionally
escapes elsewhere, particularly throughout the eastern
United States (Maryland: Tidestrøm 14455, WIS) but
also in Hawaii (Wagner et al., 1999), the West Indies
(Adams, 1972), Asia (Bangladesh: Hassan 365, WIS),
Africa (Engler, 1915; Kers, 1969; Jordaan, 2003), and
Australia (Harden, 1990).