| Dicotyledon | Literature for Cardiospermum halicacabum
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2020. |
| Sapindaceae -- The Soapberry Family | Bibliography |
| Cardiospermum halicacabum | |
Common name(s): balloon vine, heartseed, `inalua, haleakai`a (Ni`ihau), pohuehue uka, poniu |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Widespread in tropical and subtropical parts of the world, but probably native only to the southern United States and Neotropics.In the Hawaiian Islands, indigenous to Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Maui, Hawai`i. |
|
| Habit |
Annual or perennial vine; stems ribbed, many branched, sparsely pilose to glabrate. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves usually biternate; leaflets narrowly to broadly lanceolate or rhombic-lanceolate, 1.5‒6 cm long, terminal one of each primary leaf division larger than those of lateral pair, short-hirsute, primarily along the veins, margins, and petiolules, margin coarsely and irregularly lobed. |
|
| Flowers |
Inflorescences on peduncle 3.5‒12 cm long. Flowers with outer sepals obovate, ca. 1‒1.5 mm long, inner pair suborbicular, 1.5‒3 mm long, ciliate; corolla white, obovate, ca. 2‒3 mm long, 1 pair with small crests. |
|
| Fruit |
Fruit globose to obovoid, membranous, strongly inflated, 3-angled, 2‒3.5 cm long, short-hirsute. |
|
| Seeds |
Seeds black, globose, 3.5‒5 mm in diameter, heart-shaped aril conspicuous. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 22. |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
