• Family : CAPPARACEAE
  (Caper Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : KARIL FAMILY (करील फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : CLEOMACEAE
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Cleome monophylla L.
• Common name : Spindle Pod
• Vernacular name : Menasinakase (Kannada); Ellukku sakkalathi (Tamil); Rango sorisho (Oria); Cheruvela, Kattukadugu (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Waste places and cultivated fields
• Comments / notes : Common weed of agriculture fields; hills to 900m
• Key identification features : Glandular pubescent herb, leaf simple
• Flower, Fruit : Throughout the year
• Distribution :
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Nagpur district, Amravati district, Aurangabad district, Chandrapur district, Nanded district, Pune district, Sindhudurg district
  • Odisha : Ganjam district
  • Tamil Nadu : All districts of Tamil Nadu
• World Distribution : India, Sri Lanka, Tropical Africa, Asia
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2002 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 1; J.L.Ellis, 1987- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 1; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1; N.P. Sing & S. Karthikeyan 2000. Flora of Maharastra vol 1. Botanical survey of India, Govt. India; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Cleome monophylla. Downloaded on 3 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)