Choto hurhuri, Fringed spider flower, Cleome rutidosperma

Choto hurhuri or Fringed spider flower (Cleome rutidosperma, family: Cleomaceae) is a small-sized annual herb with branches up to 1 m height. The plant is native to tropical Africa and has become naturalized in the tropical and sub-tropical world. It grows on fallow land as weed in Bangladesh.

Common names: Choto hurhuri, Fringed spider flower, Purple cleome.

The plant flowers round the year. Flowers are pink, white, lilac, violet or blue, single, on leaf axil. Sepals 4, petals 4, stamens 6.

Leaves are trifoliate, middle one long, light green. Leaflets are glabrous, 4-7 cm long and 2-4 cm wide.

Fruit is capsule, 4-7 cm long, tubular, narrow at both ends, with an array of seeds. 

Cleome rutidosperma keeps fruiting throughout the year, although most abundantly in the rainy season in Bangladesh.

The seed contains alkaloid. The leaves are collected from the wild and eaten as a cooked vegetable or added to soup.

Propagation of the species is caused by seeds.

As a traditional medicinal plant it is used to cure earache, deafness, skin diseases and convulsions.