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Family: Sapindaceae
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Polygamous tree to 6 m tall; trunk slender, to ca 3 cm dbh, prominently ribbed. Leaves pinnately compound, to 1 m long or more, sparsely to densely puberulous except on blade surface; petiolules pulvinate; leaflets in 6-14 pairs, opposite or alternate, oblong to oblong-obovate, abruptly acuminate, obtuse to acute at base, slightly inequilateral at base, 7-28 cm long, 2.5-6 cm wide, +/- entire; apical leaves (called Kataphylls by Uittien, 1937) often reduced or aborted, 20-30 cm long, the petiole and rachis flattened, acicular, the leaflets narrowly oblong to linear, brown, dry, achlorophyllous, less than 2 cm long, with fascicles of still further reduced leaves in their axils like adult leaves. Thyrses arranged in large terminal panicles to 70 cm long, the lower branches to ca 40 cm long, the branches ribbed; bracts linear-lanceolate, 8-10 mm long; branches, bracts, pedicels, and calyces puberulent; calyx coriaceous, ca 4 mm long, deeply 5-lobed, the lobes ovate, ciliate, their margins thin; petals 5, white, regular, narrowly obovate, ca 7 mm long, rounded at apex, spreading and concave in upper half, sericeous near base outside, glabrous inside, the scales fused to lower third of petal inside, the free part erect, very densely white-velutinous, +/- equaling petals; stamens 8; filaments glabrous, longer than anthers; anthers ca 1.5 mm long, the connective beaked at apex; disk prominently 5-lobed, the lobes densely villous at apex; staminate flowers with the stamens ca 5 mm long, the 5 outer ones each subtending a large pubescent lobe of the disk, alternating with the petals, the 3 inner ones surrounding the pistil; ovary minute, less than 1 mm long, densely sericeous, the trichomes obscuring the 3 triangular stigmatic lobes; bisexual flowers with the stamens ca 3 mm long; ovary, style, and stigmas together to 6 mm long; ovary ovoid, 2.5-3 mm long, gradually tapered into style; style stout, thick, ca 1.5 mm long; stigmas 3, short, triangular, usually obscured by pubescence of style. Fruits (fide Radlkofer) to 2.5 cm long and 1.5 cm diam, acuminate, tomentulose, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Croat 8820, 12494, Zetek 3570. See Figs. 351 and 352. |