bladdernut

Definitions

noun Any of various deciduous shrubs or small trees of the genus Staphylea, native to northern temperate regions and having opposite compound leaves and terminal panicles of white flowers and bladderlike fruits.
noun The fruit of such a plant.

noun any of several species of large shrubs or small trees, of the genus Staphylea, in the family Staphyleaceae

bladder +‎ nut

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On the rocky slopes the wild ginger shows its red-brown, long-eared urns, the white baneberry its short white plumes, the branchlets of the bladdernut are breaking into white clusters and columbine soon will "sprinkle on the rocks a scarlet rain" as it did in

Some Spring Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905
The panicled dogwood and the red-osier dogwood (no, not the flowering dogwood) as yet show no signs of foliage, but the fine white lines in the bark of the bladdernut, which have been so attractive all winter, are now enhanced by the soft myrtle green of the tender young leaves.

Some Spring Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905
Large, triangular membranaceous pods hang thickly from the white-lined branches of the bladdernut.

Some Summer Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905
The big three-valved balloons of the bladdernut can sail either in the air, on the water, or over the frozen snow.

Some Winter Days in Iowa Frederick John Lazell 1905
Most visitors to their glorious, ever-changing gardens would never notice that they include such hard-to-find specimens as a Finnish hybrid rhododendron and a bladdernut shrub.

www.startribune.com 2012