Cardiospermum
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Sapindaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Herbaceous tendriled vines, or less often erect subshrubs, with woody base, not producing milky sap; stems furrowed, cylindrical or slightly angled; cross section of stems with a single vascular cylinder. Leaves ternately or bitemately compound, membranous or chartaceous; leaflets deeply serrate or lobed; petioles and rachis not winged; stipules minute, early deciduous. Flowers zygomorphic, functionally staminate or pistillate, produced in axillary thyrses; thyrses bearing tendrils at base of rachis; calyx of 4 or 5 unequal sepals; petals 4, distinct, white, with a hood-shaped appendage; nectary disk unilateral, 2-lobed, the lobes sometimes elongate; stamens 8, the filaments unequal, connate at base, the anthers dorsifixed; ovary 3-carpellate, each locule with a single ovule, the style slender. the stigmas 3, recurved. Fruit an inflated, membranous capsule, the septa persistent after dehiscence of valves; seeds spherical, black, with a small, white cordate hilum.
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Distribution
A tropical genus with about 15 species; most are native to the neotropics, but a few are pantropical. Also cultivated in North America and Europe.
North America| Europe|