What is a plant that looks like marijuana but with only 5 leaves on all the stems and little thorns?

Question

What is a plant that looks like marijuana but with only 5 leaves on all the stems and little thorns?

Answer 1

Spider flower (Cleome hassleriana) looks like the marijuana or hemp plant when young. The flowering plant can readily be distinguished from cannabis.

Internet search found the following :

It's possible that this plant might freak out your friends and neighbors! Until it produces it showy blossoms, spider flower looks very much like a marijuana (Cannabis spp.) plant! A few years ago a high school student wrote to Floridata asking if there were any garden plants that looked like marijuana. They were conducting a mock drug trial at his high school and he was defending a client who an eye witness had testified had marijuana plants. I sent the student lawyer pictures of the spider flower, scarlet hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus) and chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) all of which resemble the notorious weed in some way. We won - I mean he won the case by demonstrating reasonable doubt that it was marijuana and that the witness may have seen one of these "lookalikes". Case dismissed

Answer 2

Cleome hassleriana

Common name:spider flower

Family: Capparaceae (caper Family)

Until it produces it showy blossoms, spider flower looks very much like a marijuana (Cannabis spp.) plant!