A plant whose fruits look like balloons, whose seeds wear heart-shaped caps, and whose flowers and leaves are equally unusual

Last time we talked about how the sepals of the cut-leaf mallow regather at the fruiting stage, turning into a "lantern" with purplish-black stripes.

Not long ago I also came across the balloon vine, whose fruits look just like lanterns too.

[Balloon vine Cardiospermum halicacabum] Sapindaceae >> Cardiospermum

According to Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae and my friends, the balloon vine is a common wild weed in the south and rarer in the north. But I had never seen it in the south; instead, I ran into it in Beijing.

The several clumps of balloon vine I saw had climbed all over a trellis one person tall and two or three meters long, with luxuriant branches and leaves and extremely vigorous growth.

Although it was the peak flowering season for the balloon vine, if you do not stop and look a few more times, it is quite hard to notice its green fruits and tiny white flowers.

Its young fruits are balloon-shaped and plump and round. Looking from another angle, you can see that the balloon vine's fruit seems to be formed by three spheres fused together, which is very wondrous.

At first glance this fruit looks very much like the fruit of the goldenrain tree. After checking when I got back, sure enough, the balloon vine is also a Sapindaceae plant, in the same family as the goldenrain tree. Now that is interesting. In my impression, Sapindaceae are basically shrubs and trees, so it turns out there are also herbaceous vines like the balloon vine.

I secretly picked one and squeezed it. The fruit should be sealed; it felt very elastic and nice to the touch. Then... I could not wait to cut the fruit open. Consistent with its appearance, the inside of the fruit was indeed divided into three chambers, each with one small seed.

Interestingly, the round seed has a white "cap" on top. It is not easy to make out anything right now, but once the seed matures and you observe it, you can find that this white "cap" is heart-shaped.

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CAGR13

The balloon vine's flower has four petals, like a cross-shaped fan.

Its flowers are really too small, but there are many interesting details not to be missed. In the center of the petals there is a tubular structure; the upper part of the tubular structure has a yellow tip, while the lower part is like a pouch that wraps around the stamens. Its flowers are unisexual; the stamens of the male flowers are longer and poke their heads out of the tubular structure.

The calyx is also somewhat special: four lobes, but two long and two short, rather than all the same size.

Several small flowers make up the inflorescence. The balloon vine is a climbing plant, so it ought to have a structure for climbing, right~ The balloon vine's tendrils grow at the base of the inflorescence, which is also a very distinctive point.

In Cucurbitaceae plants like cucumber and loofah, the tendrils basically grow at the base of the petiole. In plants like grape and Cayratia japonica, the tendrils grow at the top of the stem.

Balloon vine, you really have many ways of "not playing by the rules."

By the way, the leaves of the balloon vine resemble those of the Chinaberry tree, so it also has another name, "golden-thread chinaberry vine."

Author: Jiang Mouren

Images: Jiang Mouren (unless otherwise noted)

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