Sapindaceae
| Soapberry family | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Litchi chinensis leaves and fruit | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Sapindales |
| Family: |
Sapindaceae Juss. |
| Subfamilies | |
| Diversity | |
| 1,900+ species in ca. 140 genera | |
 |
|
| The range of Sapindaceae. | |
Dodonaeoideae
Hippocastanoideae
Sapindoideae
Xanthoceroideae
The Sapindaceae are a family, known as the soapberry family, of flowering plants in the order Sapindales. The roughly 140–150 genera contain 1400–2000 species, including maple, ackee, horse chestnut, and lychee.
The Sapindaceae occur in temperate to tropical regions, many in laurel forest habitat, throughout the world. Many are laticiferous, i.e. they contain latex, a milky sap, and many contain mildly toxic saponins with soap-like qualities in either the foliage and/or the seeds, or roots. The largest genera are Serjania, Paullinia, Acer and Allophylus.
The largely temperate genera formerly separated in the families Aceraceae (Acer, Dipteronia) and Hippocastanaceae (Aesculus, Billia, Handeliodendron) were included within a more broadly circumscribed Sapindaceae by the APG. Recent research has confirmed the inclusion of these genera in Sapindaceae.
Plants of this family have a variety of habits, from trees to herbaceous plants or lianas. Their leaves usually spirally alternate, sometimes (in Acer, Aesculus, and a few other genera) opposite. They are most often pinnately compound, sometimes palmately compound as in Aesculus, or just palmate as in Acer. The petiole has a swollen base and lacks stipules. Some genera and species have laurel forest foliage due to convergent evolution.
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