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I saw this small tree at a local outside restaurant and had to look it up.  It is a balloon plant, asclepias physocarpa. It is a relative of milkweed, which explains the monarch butterflies we saw floating over the pool in front of these trees.  Yves, the owner of the restaurant, who always likes to stop and sit and chat a bit, called in the man who stands in front of the restaurant, offering to wash cars, and he picked two of the pods off the trees, saying we could dry them and plant the seeds  and also gave me two small trees in coffee cans, which I of course paid him for.  When I got home, I looked the plant up, thinking it might be a relative of Chinese lanterns, which are orange, but in a similar inflated shape. I can’t find any evidence that they are but did find out the sticky white sap they exude is mildly poisonous. It reminds me of the caustic sap of crown of thorns, so I was not surprised to hear this.  Now I have to decide where to plant it. Perhaps outside the window in front of my desk so I can see if it does attract monarchs.

During further research, I discovered that other names for this plant are hairy balls plant and bishop’s balls!

For Cee’s FOTD