Sesbania vesicaria (Jacq.) Elliott

Bagpod; Bladderpod

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Bladderpod is a native annual herbaceous plant in the Bean family (Fabaceae). It can be found in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. Bladderpod occurs on river sandbars, around marshes and swamps, in low pastures and fiends, and in wet roadside ditches. It is an annual with a taproot. Stems are 3-9 feet in height, branched, green in color, and glabrous. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, and pinnately compound with 20-40 leaflets. The leaflets are elliptic to oblong in outline, entire, glabrous or slightly pubescent, and mucronate (having a rounded apex with an abrupt projecting point). Flower are produced in axillary racemes. Each raceme has 3-10 flowers. The corolla is papilionaceous and yellow or maroon in color. The fruit is an elliptic to oblong papery legume with 2-3 seed. The legume has two membranes—a thick outer one and a papery inner one. The fruit remain on the plant long into the winter and make a rustling sound in the wind. Bladderpod contains the toxin sesbaimide, which is most concentrated in the seed. It has been responsible for livestock poisoning in goats and cattle. Bladderpod is a larval host plant for the Duskywing Skipper (Erynnis zarucco).—A. Diamond

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Native

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