Bladdernut, Staphylea trifolia L., Native Minnesota Wildflower shrub, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	American Bladdernut	Staphylea trifolia L.	Bladdernut (Staphyleaceae)	Woodland	Spring - May
Other names and notes	A tall growing shrub of moist woodland areas, up to 15 feet high; leaves are pinnately compound with ovate leaflets of three, finely toothed. Buds are greenish-brown with four scales. The bark is smooth and somewhat striped with white furrows, grayish-green to reddish. Small greenish-white tubular flowers with protruding stamens hang in a drooping panicle and appear at the same time as the leaves. The stalked flowers have bracts at the base of the stalk. The fertilized flowers quickly turn into a 2 to 3 inch long conspicuous 3-pointed inflated pod, within which matures from one to four seeds, usually a single one within each cavity of the pod. The shiny leaves of three somewhat resemble poison ivy. In the Woodland Garden they grow in several places, the larger specimens near Guidebook Station 12. Some also grow on the back path leading to the Upland Garden. They sucker easily and will form a thicket.


Above: The Bladdernut flowers of late May to early June (left). Early flower color (right) is more greenish before turning white. Below: Left - the mature seed pods of late September; right - the young seed pods form within 18 days of the flower.



Above: Twig buds are brownish with four scales. Below: Distinctive furrowed bark	Above: The flowers have bracted stalks (pedicels) that are slightly longer than the flower.



	Leaf and seed.
Below: A thicket of Bladdernut on the West path of the Woodland Garden. The plant has a loose structure typical of an understory shrub.

Notes: Eloise Butler noted introducing this plant in 1907 from specimens obtained at Minnehaha Park and again in 1908 and 1912 from the same source. This plant was listed on Martha Crone's 1951 inventory of plants in the Garden at that time. A recent planting was in 2008. The plant occurs in Minnesota in the South Central and SE counties only, from Wright and Anoka down to the SE corner, roughly following the Big Woods along the Mississippi and also in a few counties along the Minnesota River. Its range in North America is generally east of the Mississippi river and the Canadian provinces north of that area.

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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