Bladdernut (Staphylea bumalda)

Features and Characteristics

Staphlea bumalda, commonly known as Bumald bladdernut, is a deciduous suckering shrub that typically grows to 4-6′ tall and as wide. It is native to open forests, thickets and disturbed areas in Japan. Trifoliate leaves are in a pinnate arrangement, with each leaf featuring three elliptic to lance shaped leaflets (each to 2″ long) with serrate edges that taper to a point. Slightly-fragrant, bell-shaped, dull white flowers (each to 1/3″) bloom in spring (May-June) in loose erect panicles (to 2-3″ wide). Flowers give way to somewhat compressed two lobed fruits (seed capsules to 1″ long). The fruit for most shrubs in the genus Staphlea is an inflated baggy seed capsule (usually more inflated than the flattened capsules on S. bumalda). Seed capsules are often described as being “bladder-like” in appearance, hence the common name of bladdernut.

Genus name comes from the Greek name staphyle meaning a cluster from the arrangement of the flowers.

Specific epithet honors Ovidio Montalbano (1601-167- of Bologna, Italy. He used the pseudonym Johannus Antonius Bumaldus when publishing his Bibliotheca botanica (165- .