Narrative

Balloon vine (Cardiospermum halicacabum) is found from New Jersey west to Texas. It is also found widely in tropical areas. This annual climbing vine has petioled biternate or bipinnate leaves two to four inches long. The leaf segments are sharply toothed. The white flowers are in a few-flowered corymb at the top of the plant.

The white color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is sometimes considered an undesirable species.

This lifeform is found widely in Africa. This lifeform is found widely in the Indo-Australian region. This lifeform is found south of the Mason Dixon line in North America. This lifeform is found widely in the New World tropics.

Cardiospermum genus of herbaceous vines is found in tropical Africa, tropical and temperate America, and warmer Eurasia. There are about 14-15 species in this genus. These vines climb by tendrils and have alternate, divided leaves that have toothed leaflets. There were five species established in greater North America, including the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico as of 1994.

Soapberry Family (Sapindaceae) is a family trees, shrubs, and some vines that are found in both the New and Old World tropics. There are over 130 genera and over 1100 species in this family. There are 18 different genera with 33 species and seven subspecies established in greater North America.

Sapindales Order is a diverse group of mostly trees and shrubs.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.