Cleome hassleriana

Spider flower, spider plant, pink queen

Message of the Flower

Elan of Aspiration

The Mother’s Comment

Nothing is too high, nothing is too far for its insatiable ardour.

Spiritual Message by the Mother/ Quotes by Sri Aurobindo

There is no deep meaning of aspiration—the meaning is plain. It is the call of the being for higher things—for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or Divine Consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - II: Aspiration

This taste for supreme adventure is aspiration–an aspiration which takes hold of you completely and flings you, without calculation and without reserve and without a possibility of withdrawal, into the great adventure of the divine discovery, the great adventure of the divine meeting, the yet greater adventure of the divine Realisation.

The Mother, Questions and Answers 1956: 25 January 1956

Aspiration is like an arrow, like this (gesture). So you aspire, want very earnestly to understand, know, enter into the truth. Yes? And then with that aspiration you do this (gesture). Your aspiration rises, rises, rises, rises straight up, very strong and then it strikes against a kind of… how to put it?… lid which is there, hard like iron and extremely thick, and it does not pass through. And then you say, "See, what's the use of aspiring? It brings nothing at all. I meet with something hard and cannot pass!" But you know about the drop of water which falls on the rock, it ends up by making a chasm: it cuts the rock from top to bottom. Your aspiration is a drop of water which, instead of falling, rises. So, by dint of rising, it beats, beats, beats, and one day it makes a hole, by dint of rising; and when it makes the hole suddenly it springs out from this lid and enters an immensity of light, and you say, "Ah, now I understand."

The Mother, Questions and Answers 1955: 13 July 1955

Colour

Pink to pinkish white

Family

Capparaceae

Cultivars

Rose Queen', 'Violet Queen', 'Senorita Rosalita'

Person who named the flower

Christian Friedrich Schweigger

Flower Size

About 1 inch diameter, long stamens

Flower Texture

Delicate

Number of Petals

4 petals

Floral Symmetry

Radial

Fragrance of Flower

Lightly scented

Leaf Texture

Rough, glandular hairs

Leaf Arrangement

Alternate

Leaf Color

Green

Structural Variation (Shrub or Tree)

Herbaceous annual

Life Cycle

Annual

Blooming Period

Summer to early fall

Climate

Warm climates

Water Requirements

Moderate, drought-tolerant once established

Soil Type

Well-drained, tolerates poor soils

Temperature Ranges

Not frost tolerant

Sun or Shade

Full sun to light shade

Susceptibility to Insects and Diseases

Spider mites, fungal diseases

Pollinators

Bees, butterflies

Habitat

Native to South America, widely cultivated

Role in the Ecosystem

Attracts pollinators

Quotations

Rarely quoted

Ornamental

Attractive flowers and foliage

Uses in Other Aspects of Life

Mainly ornamental

Endangered Status

Not endangered