Balloon Vine

Description

Cardiospermum halicacabum, known as the lesser balloon vine, balloon plant or love in a puff, is a climbing plant widely distributed across tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, Australia, and North America that is often found as a weed along roads and rivers. The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia' records that other common names for Cardiospermum halicacabum were "Heart seed”, “heart pea”, or “winter cherry”. It is one among the "Ten Sacred Flowers of Kerala", collectively known as dasapushpam. The generic name Cardiospermum, which translates to "heart seeds", was given due to its large, black seeds, the white mark of which is reminiscent of a stylized heart. The specific epithet halicacabum comes from the Greek word for salt barrel and refers to the inflated fruits, after which the common name balloon vine is derived. The balloon vine is a strongly overgrown, perennial herbaceous climbing plant that can even become lignified at the base. Growing over 10 meters high, it can bloom at a height of around 25 cm. The slender, grooved stems are hairy bald to sparsely downy. The 5 to 6 cm long, triangular foliage leaves distributed on the stem are divided into a petiole and pinnate leaf blade. The petiole is (0.5 to) 1.5 to 3.5 cm long and the rachis is 0.4 to 2 cm long. The opposite leaflets are 1 to 2 cm long and the terminal leaflets are 4 to 6 cm long. The leaf margins are serrated. The stipules are reduced to tiny, early-falling scales. On the side of a 5 to 9 cm long, sparsely downy hairy inflorescence stem, there are two 1 mm long bracts, two circularly rolled tendrils and three to seven flowers in a zymous inflorescence. The functionally unisexual flowers are zygomorphic and fourfold double perianth. Of the four free, concave, durable sepals, the outer two are circular, 2 mm long and ciliate, while the inner two are oblong-ovate, 3 to 4 mm long and glabrous. The four white to yellowish petals are obovate and about 3 mm long, the upper two are each adorned with woolly scales and the lower two have large, leaf-shaped scales and two glands. In the male flowers are two circles with four free stamens each and rudimentary stamps present. The compressed stamens are hairy and about 2 mm long and the anthers are about 0.5 mm long. In the female flowers are obovate, 2 to 3 mm long and hairy, insulated draft tube ovary with a short fluffy hairy stylus, which ends in a three-part scar and eight staminodes present.