Bladderpod is an erect, rounded and profusely-branched, disagreeably-smelling shrub growing from 3' to 6' tall with  branches that are minutely downy.  It is the single species in genus Isomeris in California, where the caper family is represented by only a few genera and species.  Bladderpod is quite common and ranges widely from the coast to the deserts to an elevation of about 4000'.  The leaves are alternate, entire, petiolate and trifoliate with leaflets that are oblong-elliptic, to 1-3/4" long, and have smallish, pointed tips.  The showy yellow flowers are in dense terminal racemes to 12" long.  The calyx is four-cleft, the green sepals fused in the basal half.  There are four petals 1/2" long, six yellow stamens that are long exserted, and a pistil with a short style that is sometimes aborted in bud.  The fruit is a large, swollen elliptic capsule to 2" long with a pointed tip that contains smooth seeds and hangs down.  Bladderpod blooms throughout much of the year.  A measure of its hardiness is that on a trip to Joshua Tree National Park in February, 2003, after five years of below normal rainfall in the desert, bladderpod was observed blooming everywhere.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Isomeris 2) arborea.
Pronunciation: eye-SOM-er-is ar-BORE-ee-a.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.