and in the United States from the west coast of the United States east to Ohio and southwest to Texas. It is also naturalized farther east in North America, including Maine. This species is often found in disturbed lands—such as roadsides, open woods, mountain foothills, and prairies. The plants prefer moist alkaline soils that are light or sandy. It grows in a wide range of pH levels and prefers mild shade or full sun while being drought tolerant. It is commonly found at elevations of in the northern Rocky Mountains. It is often found with the following species: Pascopyrum smithii (western wheatgrass), Pseudoroegneria spicata (bluebunch wheatgrass), Koeleria macrantha (prairie Junegrass), Poa secunda (Sandberg bluegrass), Gaillardia aristata (common gaillardia), Artemisia tridentata (big sagebrush), and Ratibida columnifera (prairie coneflower). Uses Cleome serrulata has been used in the southwestern United States as a food, medicine, and dye since prehistoric times and is one of very few wild foods still in use. As food, its seeds can be eaten raw or cooked, or dried and ground into meal for use as a mush. The tender leaves, flowers and shoots can be cooked and eaten as a cooked vegetable or added to cornmeal porridge. Among the Zuni, the leaves gathered in large quantities and hung indoors to dry for winter use. The young leaves are cooked with corn strongly flavored with chili peppers. To reduce its bitter taste, pieces of iron or rust were sometimes added to the cooking pot. Animals rarely feed on this plant because of its disagreeable taste and odor. Nitrate poisoning can result if too much is consumed. Birds do eat the seeds, and the plant provides good cover for land reclamation and upland birds. The Tewa and other Southwestern United States tribes often included Cleome serrulata as a 'fourth sister' in the Three Sisters agriculture system because it attracts bees to help pollinate the beans and squash. In traditional Native American and frontier medicine, an infusion of the plant is used to treat stomach troubles and fevers, and poultices made from it can be used on the eyes. As a dye, the plant can be boiled down until it is reduced to a thick, black syrup; this was used as a binder in pigments for painting black-on-white pottery at least as long ago as 900-1300 by the Ancestral Puebloans. The Navajo still use it to make yellow-green dye for their