SAPINDACEAE  

Herbaceous climbers with tendrils, dioecious, with occasional bisexual flowers. Leaves 3-foliolate, or biternately compound, usually stipulate; leaflets lobed, toothed, or cut. Flowers irregular; in axillary racemes or panicles; peduncle with a pair of tendrils at summit or with abortive pedicels. Sepals 4, broadly imbricate, anterior and posterior ones larger. Petals 4, with petaloid appendages, each with a hairy, reflexed lobe near apex. Disc unilateral, of 2 glands between petals and stamens. Stamens 8; filaments unequal, free or connate at base, linear, hairy. Ovary 3-locular, sometimes 3-angled, sessile or stalked; with a single, axile ovule in each locule, sometimes villous; style short, 3-fid, or styles free. Fruit an inflated, membranous capsule. Seeds black, globose, with a white, ovate to reniform hilum. x = 11 (7, 10).

Trees. Leaves paripinnate, rarely simple; leaflets in 2-5 pairs, alternate or opposite, lanceolate to obliquely oblong-falcate, usually entire. Flowers small; in terminal panicles. Sepals 5, suborbicular, imbricate, outer smaller than inner. Petals (4)5, usually with a hairy scale on inner face, ciliate. Disc fleshy, expanded at base with margin slightly notched. Stamens 8, arising within disc; filaments hairy. Ovary 3-locular, 3-lobed, each lobe narrowly winged; with a single ovule in each locule; style short; stigma simple. Fruit of 2 or 3 winged cocci, with wings distinctly veined. Seeds ellipsoid with papery testa. x = 10 or 15.