Bladdernut
Encyclopedia
Staphylea is a small genus of 10 or 11 species of flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s in the family Staphyleaceae
Staphyleaceae
Staphyleaceae is a small family of five genera of flowering plants in the order Crossosomatales, native to the Northern Hemisphere and also in South America. The genus Staphylea, which gives the family its name, contains the "bladdernut" trees.Genera...

, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...

. The highest species diversity is in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, where four species occur.

They are large shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s, occasionally small tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s, growing to 2-5 m tall. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...

, arranged in opposite pairs, and pinnate, usually with three leaflets, but 3-7 in S. pinnata and 3-5 in S. colchica. The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are produced in drooping terminal panicles 5-10 cm long, with 5-15 flowers on each panicle; the individual flowers are about 1 cm long, with the five sepals and petals similar in size and in their white or pale pink colour. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is an inflated papery two- or three-lobed capsule
Capsule (fruit)
In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a structure composed of two or more carpels that in most cases is dehiscent, i.e. at maturity, it splits apart to release the seeds within. A few capsules are indehiscent, for example...

 3-10 cm long, containing a few small nut-like seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s.

Species
  • Staphylea bolanderi
    Staphylea bolanderi
    Staphylea bolanderi is a species of bladdernut known by the common name Sierra bladdernut. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the Sierra Nevada and mountain ranges to the north, including the southernmost slopes of the Cascade Range and the Klamath Mountains. It is a shrub or small tree...

    (Sierra Bladdernut). Western North America.
  • Staphylea bumalda (Japanese Bladdernut). Eastern Asia.
  • Staphylea colchica
    Staphylea colchica
    Staphylea colchica is an ornamental shrub in the Staphyleaceae family, which is native to western Georgia. Its name is derived from the western Georgian kingdom of Colchis....

    (Colchis Bladdernut, Jonjoli). Southwestern Asia.
  • Staphylea emodi (Himalayan Bladdernut). Himalaya.
  • Staphylea forrestii. China.
  • Staphylea holocarpa. China.
  • Staphylea pinnata (European Bladdernut). Europe.
  • Staphylea pringlei. Mexico.
  • Staphylea shweliensis. China.
  • Staphylea trifolia
    Staphylea trifolia
    Staphylea trifolia is native to eastern North America, from southern Ontario and southwestern Quebec west to Nebraska and Arkansas, and south to Florida....

    (American Bladdernut). Eastern North America.


Some botanists include the closely related genus Turpinia
Turpinia
Turpinia is a genus of plant in family Staphyleaceae. It contains the following species :* Turpinia stipulacea, van der Linden...

in Staphylea.

Cultivation and uses

Several species are grown as ornamental plant
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

s for their flowers and peculiar bladder-like fruit. The popular Staphylea × elegans is a hybrid of unknown origin, probably between S. colchica and S. pinnata.
The Bladdernut shrub is not only decorative, but also responds well to clipping; it is thus an excellent choice of hedging material. The first known use of Bladdernut for a formal hedge maze is believed to be on the private estate of David Kretzmar in South Africa, where a Bladdernut hedge maze is being created to a design by Adrian Fisher.

External links

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