Schlechter
{Gomphocarpusphysocarpus E. Mey.]
(nat) Balloon plant
Sparingly branched perennial herbs 1-2 m tall, becoming somewhat woody at base, glabrate or puberulent. Leaves opposite, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, (3.5-)5-12 (-13) cm long, 0.3-2 cm wide, petioles 0.1-1cm long. Flowers in axillary umbellate cymes, pedicels 1-2 cm long; corolla white, the lobes ovate, 8-10 mm long, reflexed, ciliate; corona white, the segments erect, strongly compressed laterally, without an internal horn. Follicles ovoid, strongly inflated, 4-7 cm long, 2.5-5 cm in diameter, covered with long soft bristles. [2n = 22.] Native to South Africa; in Hawaii naturalized in low elevation, dry habitats, occa-sionally up to 1,830 m, on all of the main islands except Niihau and Molokai. According to Degener and Greenwell (1956), originally introduced as a fiber crop on 0‘ahu; first collected on 0‘ahu in 1919 (Gouveias.n., BISH).—Plate 13.