STAPHYLEACEAE 173 



STAPHYLEACEAE 

 The Bladdernut Family 



The bladdernut family consists of shrubs or trees with alter- 

 nate or opposite, compound leaves which have no stipules. The 

 flowers are perfect or pol5'gamous and are borne in racemes or 

 panicles. There are 5 sepals and 5 petals, and the stamens have 

 distinct filaments. The ovary consists of 2 or 3 partly united 

 carpels capped by 2 or 3 distinct or partly united styles. The 

 fruit is an inflated, membranous capsule or a berry, and the 

 seeds may be few or m.any. 



There are about 22 species in this family. They are widely 

 distributed and assigned among 5 genera, of which 1 only 

 occurs in Illinois. 



STAPHYLEA Linnaeus 

 The Bladdernuts 



The bladdernuts are shrubs with 3-foliate or odd-pinnate, 

 opposite leaves and perfect, regular flowers, which are pro- 

 duced in axillary racemes or panicles. The carpels are united 

 at the base, and the stigmas are capitate. The fruit is a mem- 

 branous capsule, which is 2- or 3-celled and 2- or 3-lobed, and 

 seeds are produced singly in each cavity. 



There are about six species, all of them inhabitants of the 

 north temperate zone. Two are native in North America, one 

 in California, the other in the northeastern states. 



STAPHYLEA TRIFOLIA Linnaeus 



American Bladdernut 



The American Bladdernut, fig. 42, is an erect shrub 3 to 12 

 feet high, with stems up to 4 inches in diameter covered by 

 smoothish bark, which may be longitudinally streaked with 

 gray, and smoothish branches also streaked with gray. The 

 branchlets, green at first, are glabrous and turn light reddish 

 brown by late autumn. The leaves, which are opposite, are 

 trifoliate and stand on petioles 1 to 5 inches long. The blades 

 are glabrous or pubescent, mostly oval but quite variable, and 

 up to 2 inches long by ^4 inch wide. The terminal leaflet is 

 the largest. The leaflets are abruptly short-acuminate at the 



