Isomeris arborea

Identification

Description

(Syn. Cleome arborea) Bladderpod is a distinctive plant with unusual yellow flowers and cool fruits that when dry, resemble a paper lantern that rattles (the seeds inside the dried fruit rattle around). In the southern deserts and ranging to coastal San Diego is a form that has fruits that are more narrow and gradually narrowing to two pointy ends, formerly called variety angustata. The other extreme form has globe-like fruits, with two short points on either end, was called variety globosa, and ranges from coastal areas and inland to mid-elevations in southern California to the southwestern portion of the San Joaquin Valley over the southern end of the Sierra Nevada to around Tehachapi. Bladderpod is an evergreen (glaucous) shrub, 4 ft. high, and a versatile shrub for harsh areas. I have been told seeds and pods can be treated as capers. Isomeris arborea resents overwatering and suffers the most in wet winters, seems to be deer proof. I have no idea why Bladderpod loves to be on coastal bluffs, basking in the salt spray. Everything around it looks blow torched, when this one is lush and in flower.