[1][2] Cleome ornithopodioides is an annual plant growing to a height of .3 m.[3] Flowers possess both male and female reproductive organs.

[3] The first samples of bird spiderflower to arrive in Europe came from explorations of the area called the Levant and were successfully cultivated by James Sherard in 1732.

[4] Joseph Pitton de Tournefort named the Claude Aubriet illustration of C. ornithopodioides Sinapistrum Orientale in the 1700 Institutiones rei herbariæ.

[13] Native to the area of the eastern Mediterranean,[4] C. ornithopodioides was described in 1865 as living in the wild along with Trifolium stellatum in a fertile valley at the foot of Mount Serbal.

[14] Philip Miller wrote of the ease of cultivation of C. ornithopodioides in his 1754 The Gardeners Dictionary: "...will thrive in open Air; so the Seeds of this may be sown on a Bed of light Earth in April (late Spring), where the Plants are to remain; and will require no other Culture, but to keep them clear from Weeds: in June (early Summer) they will flower, and the Seeds will ripen in August (late Summer); and the Plants will soon after perish.