Cheruvela / Spindle Pod
Cleome monophylla
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Cheruvela
Identify Cheruvela by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Single (undivided) leaflet, unusual for the genus.
- Confirm leaf shape: Simple oval/round.
- Confirm flower colour: Purple/pink.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Capparaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Cheruvela.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Cleome monophylla
- Genus
- Cleome
- Family
- Capparaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Habitat
- Waste places and cultivated fields
- Habitat type
- Cultivated, Wasteland
- Distribution
- India, Sri Lanka, Tropical Africa, Asia
- Found in India
- Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Assam, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Puducherry, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Chandigarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf shape
- Simple oval/roundrecorded
Typical of the family
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Characters marked “recorded” are for Cheruvela itself; the rest are typical of the Capparaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Purple/pinkrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Raceme
- Fruit
- Capsule
Characters marked “recorded” are for Cheruvela itself; the rest are typical of the Capparaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Malayalam
- Cheruvela, Kattukadugu
About Cheruvela
A member of the Capparaceae family, Spindle Pod (Cleome monophylla) is a herb. In India it has been recorded in Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and 28 other states. It grows in waste places and cultivated fields. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Capparaceae
Caper Family
Cheruvela belongs to the Capparaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Capparaceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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