List of Sapindaceae genera

The fruits of Sapindus saponaria, western or wingleaf soapberry, give the family its vernacular name.

This is a list of genera in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae, which includes the soapberries (Sapindus), maples (Acer), and paullinias, amongst others. As currently circumscribed, the family contains approximatively 1900 species into over 140 genera classified into 4 subfamilies.^[1]

Current understanding

The current circumscription of Sapindaceae encompasses the traditional Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae as tribes in subfamily Hippocastanoideae. Although the classification at subfamilial level is fairly well-established, the circumscription at tribal and generic level remains only partially resolved, especially in the larger subfamily Sapindoideae, which has led the most recent revision to treat the majority of these genera without placing them in a tribe.^[1] Another recent study hints at even more incongruity between traditional circumscription and molecular evidence.^[2]

Recent changes have included the synonymization of Distichostemon with Dodonaea,^[3] and Neotina and Tinopsis with Tina.^[4] Additionally, not all authors agree about the broad circumscription that ensues from placing Xanthoceras as the sister group to the three traditional families as the resulting Sapindaceae sensu lato, unlike the traditional families, is difficult to characterize.^[1][5] As a result, the elevation of Xanthoceroideae to family level was recently proposed, which would remove from Sapindaceae those six genera currently placed in that subfamily and Hippocastanoideae.^[5]

This list follows Acevedo-Rodríguez et al.^[1] as modified by more recent research.^{[3][4][6][7][8][9]}

Genera

Notes

References