American bladdernut

Photo: Randy A. Nonenmacher — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 3 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Pistachio-like edible seeds in papery rattling pods.

Hardiness

Zone 3–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Seed, Fruit

Ripens

Autumn

Mature size

Shrub 2–4 m

Light

Partial to shade (woodland understory)

Soil pH

6.0–7.0

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Eastern North America — southern Ontario and south-western Quebec west to Nebraska and Arkansas, south to Florida; moist woodland, ravines and stream banks.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

30–45 cm/year — medium.

Spacing

250 cm (98 in) apart — about 6.3 m² (67 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Opposite and trifoliate — just three finely toothed, pointed-oval leaflets per leaf, each 5–10 cm long — on green striped stems.

Root system

Shallow and suckering, spreading into a loose clump, though far less aggressively than most thicket shrubs, which makes it manageable in a garden.

Fruit description

The plant's whole point: an inflated, papery, three-lobed bladder-like capsule 2.5–5 cm long, green ripening to pale brown and rattling when shaken, holding a few hard, glossy brown seeds with a pistachio-like flavour.

Propagation

Seed is doubly dormant — a warm period followed by three months cold at about 4°C — and often waits two years. Division of suckers or softwood cuttings under mist are quicker and more certain.

Pollination

Hermaphrodite and insect-pollinated — bumblebees, small solitary bees and syrphid flies visit the drooping cream bells. Self-fertile, with better set alongside a second plant.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.