# Help With Plant/Fruit ID - Thanks!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-plant-fruit-id-thanks/764317>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 28, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-plant-fruit-id-thanks/764317 "2016-08-28T19:11:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-plant-fruit-id-thanks/764317/1 "2016-08-28T19:11:19Z")

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Hi, I’m hoping someone will be able to identify this plant and/or fruit.

[[Album] Need Help Identifying This Plant! ![](https://i.imgur.com/hmKV0HA.jpeg?fb "Need Help Identifying This Plant!") ](https://imgur.com/a/sx6mt)

It was photographed by a friend in a cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. She said that using reverse Google images just gave a guess of “plant” 🙂

To quote her: “found on a tree or very sparse bush, approximately 5 feet in height”

Thanks for any help!

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**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-plant-fruit-id-thanks/764317/2 "2016-08-28T19:19:10Z")

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Holy moly, she just got a hit on Reddit. It turns out to be “Gomphocarpus physocarpus (Apocynaceae family), commonly known as balloonplant”, or seed pods.

Thanks anyway! 🙂

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**Author:** ![Debs181](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Debs181](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debs181)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-plant-fruit-id-thanks/764317/3 "2016-10-29T13:30:36Z")

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I tried searching the Better Homes & Gardens Plant Encyclopedia online at [http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/](http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/http://). This database has facets for searching by plant size, type, and the zipcode where the plant is found. I checked www.usps.comand used zipcode 11201 for Brooklyn, NY in my search. Unfortunately, I did not get a likely match for a 3-8 foot shrub or a tree (of any height) in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn has a Botanic Garden ([http://www.bbg.org/](http://www.bbg.org/)) so I also checked their website’s Plant Collection database ([http://www.bbg.org/collections/plant\_collection](http://www.bbg.org/collections/plant_collection)). However, you need to know the plant species to be able to use the database.

I then resorted to Google and entered the search term “green plant with puffy spiky bulbs” and tentatively identified your plant as a Strawberry Bush. There was no match so I returned to the images to review their tags and then looked for a Balloon Plant and Gomphocarpus Physocarpus. Unfortunately, neither the Brooklyn Botanic GHarden or the BHG encyclopedia had entries, so I entered the scientific term into Google and found a plant description at the Missouri Botanical Garden here:  
[http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=e373#AllImages](http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=e373#AllImages)

They describe it as a shrubby perennial that grows 4-6 feet noted for its balloon-like pods

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**Author:** ![Wallet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@Wallet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallet)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2016, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-plant-fruit-id-thanks/764317/4 "2016-10-30T09:00:23Z")

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Debs, that was so sweet of you to do that much research! I really appreciate the effort, and the time you put in.

You were 100% right - it _was_ "Gomphocarpus physocarpus ".

I think you have a bright future here at the SDMB. 🙂  
Thanks again,  
Wallet

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**Author:** ![Debs181](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Debs181](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debs181)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-plant-fruit-id-thanks/764317/5 "2016-10-31T16:14:39Z")

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Thank you, your question and my answer were a part of my librarianship training to get aspiring librarians into the reference trenches! Cheers.