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Sapindales / sæpɪnˈdeɪliːz / is an order of flowering plants. Well-known members of Sapindales include citrus; maples, horse-chestnuts, lychees and rambutans; mangos and cashews; frankincense and myrrh; mahogany and neem .
- Sapindaceae - Wikipedia
The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the...
- Rutaceae - Wikipedia
The Rutaceae (/ r uː ˈ t eɪ s i ˌ aɪ,-s iː ˌ iː /) is a...
- Sapindales - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sapindales is a botanical name for an order of flowering...
- Sapindaceae - Wikipedia
- Overview
- Distribution and abundance
Sapindales, order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, containing 9 families, about 460 genera, and some 5,700 species of shrubs, woody vines, and trees. It includes the Citrus genus and other species important for their fruits.
More than half the species in Sapindales belong to two families: Sapindaceae (about 1,600 species) and Rutaceae (about 1,800 species). Most of the remaining species belong to four other well-known families: Anacardiaceae (about 600 species), Burseraceae (550 species), Meliaceae (621 species), and Simaroubaceae (95 species). The remaining three families (Biebersteiniaceae, Kirkiaceae, and Nitrariaceae) total 27 species.
Sapindaceae, or the soapberry family, with about 135 genera and some 1,600 species, occurs mainly in the tropical areas of the world and is especially abundant in the American tropics. Species range from trees and shrubs to lianas or herbaceous vines. The family is found throughout the wetter tropics and subtropics, extending north to Japan and south to New Zealand. The largest genera in the family are Serjania (215 species), which occurs from the southern United States to tropical South America and has a main centre of diversity in southeastern Brazil, and Paullinia (195 species) in the American tropics and subtropics. Both are lianas or vines. Allophylus is a tropical and subtropical genus of shrubs and trees, with anywhere from 1 to 200 species recognized by some botanists.
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Included within Sapindaceae are the genera from two former families, Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae. The most important genus in Aceraceae was Acer (maple), with about 110 species, which is found across the north temperate zone from western North America to Japan. Maple trees form an important component of the deciduous forests of North America, Europe, and Asia. The distribution of the genus dips southward to Guatemala and through Southeast Asia to Malaysia and the Philippines, where species may be abundant in tropical mountain forests. The major centre of distribution for the genus is China, where half the maple species occur; about three-quarters of the species are Asian. There are eight species of Acer with compound leaves that are sometimes placed in a separate genus, Negundo. Another former member of Aceraceae is Dipteronia, a genus of central and southern China with two species.
Hippocastanaceae had only two genera of trees and shrubs. Aesculus (horse chestnuts and buckeyes), with about 13 deciduous species, has an interrupted distribution in temperate forests from western and eastern North America (seven species) to the Balkan Peninsula in Europe (one species) and in Asia from India to China and Japan (five species). The two evergreen species of Billia occur as isolated trees in tropical forests from southern Mexico to northern South America.
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Sapindaceae, the soapberry family of flowering plants (order Sapindales), comprising about 145 genera and some 1,925 species. Its members occur mainly in the tropical and subtropical areas of the world and are especially abundant in the American tropics.
Sapindales is overwhelmingly composed of woody plants —mostly trees, large shrubs, and woody climbers. The latter are particularly common in Sapindaceae ( Paullinia, Serjania, and Urvillea) and Anacardiaceae ( Toxicodendron ). Many beautiful forest trees belong to this order.
