About Epixiphium wislizeni (Engelm. ex A.Gray) Munz
Epixiphium wislizeni, commonly called balloonbush, is a flowering plant species belonging to the plantain family, Plantaginaceae. It is the only species that makes up the entire genus Epixiphium. It is a scrambling or climbing perennial subshrub. It is native to Chihuahua state in northern Mexico, and the southwestern United States, specifically Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, where it grows in sand dune habitats. It produces tubular flowers that come in shades ranging from blue to violet, as well as white, and has more-or-less triangular leaves with no teeth along their edges. This species was first formally described in 1859 under the name Maurandya wislizeni. In 1926, Philip A. Munz moved it to its own separate genus, reclassifying it as Epixiphium wislizeni. Its species epithet wislizeni honors Friedrich Adolph Wislizenus. The name is very frequently misspelled as "wislizenii".
