Yellow Bee Plant
Peritoma lutea
Synonyms: Cleome lutea, Cleome lutea ssp. lutea, Cleome lutea var. lutea
Characteristics:
This plant is non-glandular. It has glaucous, glabrous foliage. It is simple to freely branched, and may stand as tall as 150 cm.
The stem leaves are palmately compound and may have between three and five leaflets. Typically, the leaves are long petioled.
The flowers have 4 sepals and 4 petals. The petals are yellow and not clawed, and tend to be clustered at one side of the flower. They are between 5 to 8 mm long. There are six stamens. The flowers are showy and attractive to pollinating insects. They are borne in bracteate racemes which become very elongated when in fruit.
The seed capsules are long, and linear, being between 15 and 35 mm long. They tend to droop or sometimes be somewhat spreading.
Yellow Bee Plant lives in the sandy soil of desert plains and into dry lower valleys in the foothills.
Yellow Bee Plant is found from eastern Washington east to Montana, south through Nebraska to Texas, and in the west, south through eastern Oregon to California.