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Sapindaceae family

Showy Balloonvine Cardiospermum grandiflorum

Showy Balloonvine is an introduced perennial vine, found in Hawaii. It grows to 20 ft.

More about this plant

Cardiospermum grandiflorum, commonly known as showy balloonvine, heart pea or heart seed, is a species of climbing plant native to eastern Argentina and Brazil. Wikipedia →

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Showy Balloonvine is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Hairy Woodrose
Native
Hairy Woodrose
Merremia aegyptia
●●○○○
Cosmosflower Beggarticks
Native
Cosmosflower Beggarticks
Bidens cosmoides
●●●●○
Native
Velvetleaf Soldierbush
Heliotropium foertherianum
●●●●○
Daly River Satinash
Native
Daly River Satinash
Syzygium nervosum
●●●●○
Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height · Foliage
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Height
20 ft
Lifespan
Perennial
Foliage
Broadleaf
In the garden
Vine / climber layer — Sits in the vine of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~1 caterpillar species

Cardiospermum supports ~1 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Cardiospermum in North America, including:

Chlorostrymon simaethis · Silver-Banded Hairstreak ✦ Amyna octo · owlet moth Hemiargus thomasi · gossamer-winged butterfly Strymon bebrycia · Red-Lined Scrub-Hairstreak
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0). ✦ = recorded on this exact species.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (14) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[12] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[13] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[14] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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