Plant in full sun with good drainage and provide infrequent to no irrigation once established. Tolerates sea spray, saline and alkaline soils and is cold hardy to 0° F and useful in USDA Zones 7 and above. Cut back plants to the ground to rejuvenate should they get to large or unruly. This plant provides a year-round display with newly forming buds, flowers and developing fruit at all stages often all on display at the same time. It is a showy plant for dry gardens and is a great source of nectar for hummingbirds, bees and butterflies while also being resistant to predation by deer and rabbits. The cooked flowers are eaten, and the pods are filled with large round seeds that are edible raw but a bit bitter but sweeten when boiled for about 15 minutes. The Diegueno American Indian tribe used the seeds and flowers for food, and the flowers were eaten boiled or sunbaked by the Kawaiisu American Indians in the San Joaquin Valley.

Cleomella arborea has an incredible wide natural range from near the seashore in Southern California to inland valleys, foothills up into the low and high deserts. Near the coast, it is typically found on dry slopes in coastal sage scrub, in low desert in the Creosote Scrub plant community and higher up in Joshua Tree Woodlands. It is in the spiderflower family (Cleomaceae), which previously was included in the Caper family, the Capparaceae and prior to that both families were included in the mustard family, the Brassicaceae.

The current name for the genus comes from the combination of the name for the related genus Cleome with the Latin diminutive suffix 'ella', essentially meaning "little Cleome". The name Cleome published in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus has an obscure origin as it was an ancient name for a mustard-like plant with that name possibly from the Greek word 'kleos' meaning "glory" or 'Kleo', the Greek muse of history. When we grew this plant the name used was Peritoma arborea, with this genus name from Greek words 'peri' meaning "around" and 'tome' or 'tomos' meaning "division", "section" or "to slice" with the combination meaning "cut-around" in reference either to the way the fruit dehisces or is descriptive of the circumscissile calyx base. This name was first published by in Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1824 but this California species was long considered a monotypic member of the genus Isomeris which came from the "Iso" means "equal", and "meris" means "part", referring to the stamens being of equal length. In the past it has also been known as Cleome isomeris. The specific epithet is derived from Latin for "tree" and alludes to a tree-like habit of growth, though rarely does this shrub actually become so large. Besides bladderpod (sometimes listed as bladder pod) it is also known by the common names burrofat, California Cleome and bladderpod spiderflower.

Our plants are grown from seed off a particularly showy and nearly continually flowering specimen in a garden in a Santa Barbara garden that was originally purchased at a Santa Barbara Botanic Garden plant sale. Carol Bornstein, the longtime director of horticulture at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and later director of the gardens at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History noted that in both gardens this plant was both very attractive and a magnet for hummingbirds and other insects. She also noted that the edible seed likely attracted other birds and animals as well. 

The information displayed on this page about Cleomella arborea is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.