Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Gentianales > Apocynaceae > Gomphocarpus > Gomphocarpus physocarpus

Gomphocarpus physocarpus (balloonplant)

Synonyms: Asclepias brasiliensis; Asclepias physocarpa (homotypic); Gomphocarpus brasiliensis; Gomphocarpus fruticosus; Gomphocarpus fruticosus f. brasiliensis

Wikipedia Abstract

Gomphocarpus physocarpus, commonly known as balloonplant, balloon cotton-bush, bishop's balls, nailhead, or swan plant, is a species of milkweed. The plant is native to southeast Africa, but it has been widely naturalized. It is often used as an ornamental plant. The name "balloonplant" is an allusion to the swelling bladder-like follicles which are full of seeds.
View Wikipedia Record: Gomphocarpus physocarpus

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Structure [3]  Shrub

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park 177278 Hawaii, United States
Kruger National Park II 4718115 Mpumalanga, South Africa
Norfolk Island National Park II 1723 Australian external territories, Australia  

Predators

Aphis nerii (Oleander aphid)[4]
Danaus chrysippus (Plain Tiger)[5]
Danaus plexippus (Monarch Butterfly)[6]
Euploea core (Oleander butterfly)[4]
Oncopeltus fasciatus (large milkweed bug)[4]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Danaus plexippus (Monarch Butterfly)[4]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 6Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0