CARDIOSPERMUM HALICACBUM

Family and Genus:- See- SAPINDACEAE

Common Name:- Balloon vine

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Cardiospermum (Gr) Heart-seed.

Halicacbum (Gr) From an ancient Greek name for Halicarnassus, Gulf

of Cerameicus.

General description:- Herbaceous climber of tropical origin, sometimes cultivated

as an omamental

Stem:-

1) Up to 2 m but often much less, strongly ridged.

Leaves:-

1) More or less deltate in outline, ternate;

a) leaflets, deeply ternatisect, with a large, rhombic-lanceolate, irregularly deeply

incise-dentate terminal lobe and 2 small lateral lobes.

Flowers:-

1) Small, greenish or whitish, with 4 petals and sepals,

2) Petals, 4 mm, sepals, 1·5 mm, borne in small, long-stalked clusters with tendrils

intermixed.

Fruit:-

1) An inflated bladder-like capsule, 20-30 mm; trigonous or subglobose, papery.

2) Seeds, 5 mm diam, black with a conspicuous, white, cordate hilum.

Habitat:- Cultivated and uncultivated land grassy areas.

Distribution:- Spain, Greece and Yugoslavia, probably elsewhere. (Widespread in

tropical and subtropical regions). A species introduced to Crete. Not common.

Flowering time:- May-Aug.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton