Deciduous forests and thickets, especially on floodplains and river banks. Sometimes cultivated, and possibly plants forming thickets at the edge of a deciduous forests in Charlevoix Co. are of such an origin rather than disjunct.

Our only species in this small family is a distinctive large shrub with opposite trifoliolate leaves and an inflated, usually 3-lobed indehiscent “capsule” with papery walls that pop when crushed. The whitish flowers appear in rather showy drooping panicles with the leaves in the spring; the unique bladder-like fruit in late summer is ca. 3–5 cm long, at first green but becoming yellow-brown.

Confusion with Ptelea is surprisingly frequent, and if one is puzzled by a vegetative specimen it is necessary only to remember that Ptelea has alternate leaves with leaflets entire or nearly so, whereas the opposite leaved Staphylea has leaflets finely and closely toothed.