Staphylea
Genus of flowering plants
Staphylea, called bladdernuts, is a small genus of 10 or 11 species of flowering plants in the family Staphyleaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The highest species diversity is in China, where four species occur.
They are large shrubs, occasionally small trees, growing to 2-5 m tall. The leaves are deciduous, arranged in opposite pairs, and pinnate, usually with three leaflets, but 76-178 mm (3-7 in) in S. pinnata and 76-127 mm (3-5 in) in S. colchica. The flowers are produced in drooping terminal panicles 5-10 cm long, with 5-15 flowers on each panicle; the individual flowers are about 1 cm long, with the five sepals and petals similar in size and in their white or pale pink colour. The fruit is an inflated papery two- or three-lobed capsule 3-10 cm long, containing a few small nut-like seeds.
01Species
Plants of the World Online currently includes:
- Staphylea affinis (Merr. & L.M.Perry) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea arguta (Seem.) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea bolanderi A.Gray, Sierra bladdernut. Western North America.
- Staphylea bumalda DC., Japanese bladdernut. Eastern Asia.
- Staphylea campanulata J.Wen
- Staphylea cochinchinensis (Lour.) Byng & Christenh. - Nepal to S. China and Indo-China.
- Staphylea colchica Steven, Colchis bladdernut, jonjoli. Eastern Europe.
- Staphylea emodi Wall. ex Brandis, Himalayan bladdernut. Himalaya.
- Staphylea formosana (Nakai) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea forrestii Balf.f., China.
- Staphylea holocarpa Hemsl., China.
- Staphylea indochinensis (Merr.) Byng & Christenh. - S. China, N. Vietnam
- Staphylea insignis (Tul.) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea japonica (Thunb.) Mabb.
- Staphylea macrosperma (C.C.Huang) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea megaphylla (Tul.) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea pinnata L., European bladdernut. Europe.
- Staphylea pringlei S.Watson, Mexico.
- Staphylea shweliensis W.W.Sm., China.
- Staphylea subsessilifolia (C.Y.Wu) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea ternata (Nakai) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea tricornuta (Lundell) Byng & Christenh.
- Staphylea trifolia L., American bladdernut. Eastern North America.
- Staphylea yuanjiangensis K.M.Feng & T.Z.Hsu
Some botanists previously included the closely related genus Turpinia in Staphylea.
02Cultivation and uses
Several species are grown as ornamental plants for their flowers and peculiar bladder-like fruit. The popular Staphylea × elegans is a hybrid of unknown origin, probably between S. colchica and S. pinnata. The pickled flowers can be served as a side dish in Georgian cuisine.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Staphylea”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Staphylea colchica.jpg by Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0
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