• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Wytchery: A Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries

Wytchery: A Gothic Cabinet of Curiosities and Mysteries

A collection of gothic horror stories, urban legends, ghosts, haunted houses & other curiosities

  • Curiosity Cabinet
    • Journal
    • The Witch’s Gardener
      • A Grimoire
      • Plants
      • What’s blooming?
    • Pagans & Witches
    • Gothic Horror
    • Real Ghost Stories
    • History
      • Daily Life
      • Towns and Villages
      • sites
      • Events and Celebrations
      • Issues
  • Travels
  • Author
  • Hello
  • Shop
    • Shirts & Hoodies
    • Mugs
    • Books
    • Art Prints
  • Cart
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Cleome Serrulata: A Native American addition to the witch’s garden and table, and a friend to bees and butterflies

Tweet
Share135
135 Shares
Witch’s Garden, Cleome

You can’t overestimate the importance of bees in a witch’s garden, for our stinging friends help to pollinate. Just behind them in usefulness in this task are butterflies, and to attract both, plant a bit of Cleome in your herb garden.

Additionally, many beekeepers love Cleome as it is an excellent source of nectar, resulting in a yummy tasting honey.

Known by various names such as Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, Rocky Mountain Bee Weed, Navajo Spinach and Spider Flower, Cleome Serrulata was originally found in the west, spreading its way east across the United States. The Native Americans found many uses for Cleome, for everything from a treatment for stomach ailments, a poultice for the eyes, a recipe for a strong voice, ceremonial blood rituals, to cooking in stews and salads and even to decorate pottery.

witch's garden, native american garden, herb garden
Cleome from Wildflower Mix, The Witch’s Garden, July 4 With Sunset, 2013, Carmi, Illinois

The Navajo call it Waa, the Pueblos used it as a vital food source, and the Zuni mixed it with corn for chili. Another Native American delicacy consisted of Cleome which has been boiled, fibers removed, then molded into think cakes and fried.

A Saudi Arabian relative of Cleome Serrulata was thought to be used raw in salads, though that’s up for scholarly debate, as it’s also known as what translates to stench weed and ostrich fart, and indeed even in America it’s known as Stinking Clover and Skunk Weed. Most Native American recipes in fact have Cleome cooked, most frequently boiled, often eaten like spinach, or the seeds, which are often eaten raw, boiled into a porridge-like mush. Seeds are also sometimes ground into a flour or meal, and has been used for bread since prehistoric times.

However, belying the names associated with foul odors, it’s also been used as a deodorant, for both the body and for shoes.  If you boil it down enough, you end up with a black syrup, quite thick, which acts as a binding agent for pigments, ideal for painting on unfired pottery.

Cleome Serrulata grows up to 60 inches tall, making it one of the tallest annuals in the witch’s garden. The flowers are bizarre, spidery blooms of a pinkish or purple color, sometimes white, also putting out fruit capsule which contain a multitude of seeds, which if left unchecked can overrun the area where it’s grown, even choking out itself.

How to Grow Cleome Serrulata

Cleome is very easy to care for, emerging from a somewhat straggly start into a dazzling plant, which can bloom from early summer until the first frost. Growing from seeds might give you a somewhat later start on the blooms, though you can still expect them by the end of June.

If you do start from seed, just sprinkle them on decent garden soil, as they need light to germinate. Doing so in the fall should do the trick, as when conditions are right, the seeds will germinate.

Cleome handles drought well, and if mulched you’ll find it can withstand even the driest summers. They also are tolerant of pests, remarkably disease free, and hanging back with the fertilizer actually helps in their proper growth.

As the name spider plant implies, the Cleome can get quite leggy when in fool bloom
As the name spider plant implies, the Cleome can get quite leggy when in fool bloom

Plucking the seed pods will reduce Cleome’s tendency to reseed, and if you do want it to repopulate itself, thin the new growth to one every eighteen inches or so.

As an added bonus, in addition to butterflies and bees, Cleome attracts hummingbird moths, which looks enough like a hummingbird that you’ll need to check twice to be sure.

You might find these interesting

  • The Witch's Garden reborn: Taming the feral beast for a new spring

    As spring sends new shoots bursting upwards, I'm struck with a sudden urge to rework…

  • Penstemon digitalis: A Foxglove native to North America

    May 29, 2014, The Witch's Garden, Carmi, Illinois For those in the United States who…

  • Celebrating the Cowslip on May Day morning in the witch's garden

    Cowslip is a witch's garden plant which s traditionally found by foraging. Know for its…

  • Datura unfolding in the witch's garden

    Moon Garden Plants, June 1, 2016 This is my first year for growing Datura. Around…

Tweet
Share135
135 Shares

February 15, 2018 By belladonna

Filed Under: Plants for A Witch's Garden & Moon Garden, Witch's Garden, Witch's Garden Feature Tagged With: native American herbalism, Witches Garden, witchy garden, witchy plants

About the author and artist

The haunted, macabre, the downright peculiar ….the curiously gothic world of Todd Atteberry

 

Gothic horror stories, haunted travelogues, a healthy dose of witchcraft, paganism, stone circles and ancient trackways.

Meet Todd

The Witch’s Gardener …

A look at witch’s garden plants, ideas, resources, moon gardens, folklore, herbalism and life with the witch’s gardener.

Enter The Garden

Gothic Travels …

Haunted travelogues, where to visit, where to stay, the history and truth behind the legends

Explore

Memento Mori

Remember you are mortal. T-shirts, hoodies and gaiters, Premium fabrics and fit, eco friendly and ethically sourced.
Wear Memento Mori

Visit the shop …

Offering Wyrd and Wanton T-Shirts, Long Sleeve Tees and Hoodies, Books and Fine Art Prints … Literary love tokens for children of the night.


Lets go shopping!

Discover more

Haunted Travels A witch's garden Get Connected

Footer

Copyright © 2021

Keep In Touch

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Thank you for visiting

Want curiosities in your inbox?

Sign up to receive emails from A Gothic Curiosity Cabinet.