Bushveld Red Balloon

transvaalensis: from the Transvaal, S Africa

Deciduous shrub or small tree, branching near the base. Bark brown, smooth and shiny. Leaves crowded near the ends of branches, imparipinnate with a winged rhachis and c. 7 pairs of narrowly lanceolate, distinctly asymmetric leaflets, up to c. 7 cm long, dark green; lower leaflets often with a lobe-like extension near the base; margin entire. Flowers in erect branched heads, before or with the new leaves, green, tinged with red. Fruit an inflated, balloon-like capsule, 3-angled, red when ripe. Seeds usually 3, round, somewhat flattened, 10-15 mm in diameter, purple-black.

Northwestern Mpumalanga, South Africa and southwestern Zimbabwe.

Erythrophysa transvaalensis (Bushveld red balloon, Afrikaans: Bosveld-rooiklapperbos, Tswana: Mofalatsane) is a species of plant in the family Sapindaceae. It is a protected tree in South Africa. It is found in Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Its range is disjunct however, so that suggestions have been made that its seeds were formerly employed as beads, which assisted its dispersal along ancient trade routes.