SAPINDACEAE  

Shrubs or small trees with dense leafy crown; probably monoecious. Leaves pinnate; leaflets entire, lowermost ones reduced, stipule-like, one of the pair inserted on or shortly above petiole, sometimes caducous. Inflorescence axillary, racemose, slender, simple or branched. Flowers regular. Sepals 5, united shortly at base; lobes unequal, oblong-ovate. Petals 5, elliptic-lanceolate to ovate, exceeding sepals at maturity, scale 2-lobed, half as large as limb. Disc a complete ring, flat, broad, glabrous. Male flower: stamens 9, glabrous. Female flower: staminodes 8, curved in bud, glabrous; ovary 2-lobed, 2-locular; style truncate, with 2 stigmatic grooves. Fruit subglobose, grooved.

Small trees or shrubs; branchlets glabrous. Leaves paripinnate with winged rachis; leaflets up to 11-jugate, sessile, very narrowly oblong to oblong-elliptic, entire, glandular-punctate and shiny above, otherwise glabrous. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary paniculate thyrse. Flowers functionally male or female. Sepals 5, free almost to base, ciliolate, persistent. Petals 5, ovate, ciliolate. Disc lanate. Stamens 5, inserted between lobes of disc, sterile in female flowers. Ovary 2-locular; locules 1-ovulate; ovule pendent from apex of locule; pistillode present in male flowers. Fruit drupaceous, 1- or 2-locular, glabrous. Seeds 1 or 2, without arillode.

Small trees or shrubs, usually single-stemmed and often with a palm-like habit, polygamous or dioecious. Leaves paripinnate, up to 1 m and longer, with +/- 4-8 pairs of +/- opposite leaflets; stipules absent. Inflorescences spicate racemes arranged in rows or groups on old wood or roots. Flowers slightly irregular with petals crowded to one side and stamens or ovary on opposite side. Calyx +/- urn-shaped, (4)5-lobed, finely, densely tomentose; lobes 1/4-1/2 as long as calyx. Petals 4 or 5(6), unequal, slightly longer than calyx, linear-spathulate, with a short scale and sometimes also a short subulate process above the claw. Disc annular, asymmetrical, lobed. Stamens 6-8(15); filaments filiform, conspicuously hairy; anthers 2-thecous, dorsifixed, linear-oblong. Ovary 3-9-locular and -lobed, with 1 erect ovule per locule; style present, sometimes arched in female flowers; stigma entire to slightly lobed. Fruit a large and fleshy, lobed or ribbed drupe. Seed 1 per locule, without aril.