CLAMMYWEED

(Polanisia trachysperma), North American herb of the caper family (Capparaceae). The plant is 60 cm (2 feet) tall and has leaves that give off a foul odour when bruised. The stems and three-parted leaves are hairy and sticky. Bladelike bracts (leaflike appendages) are crowded along the flowering stalks. The flowers have four sepals, four white petals, and eight-to-many protruding purple stamens (male pollen-producing structures). An annual, clammyweed grows on sunny waste ground and roadsides in warm-temperate regions.