Sapindaceae

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{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Soapberry family | image = Lychee.jpg | image_width = 240px | image_caption = Litchi chinensis leaves and fruit | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Magnoliopsida | ordo = Sapindales | familia = Sapindaceae | familia_authority = Juss. | subdivision_ranks = genera | subdivision = See text. }}

Sapindaceae, also known as the soapberry family, is a family of plants in the order Sapindales. There are about 140-150 genera with 1400-2000 species.

They are trees, shrubs, herbs and lianas occurring in temperate to tropical regions throughout the world. Many are lactiferous, i.e. they contain milky sap, and many contain mildly toxic saponins (alkaloids with soap-like qualities) in either the foliage and/or the seeds.

The leaves are spirally alternate or (in Acer, Aesculus, and a few other genera) opposite; petiolate, usually without stipules, and mostly compound, either ternate, pinnate or bipinnate, but mostly simple palmate in Acer, and compound palmate in Aesculus and Billia.

The small flowers are unisexual or functionally unisexual. In this case, the female flowers have non-functional stamens. The flowers are aggregated in cymes (rarely solitary), usually bracteate; often with female flowers at the base of the cyme and male at the apex. There are five sepals (sometimes four), separate or joined. The petals number five (sometimes four, or apetalous), usually free but sometimes fused at the base. The stamens usually number eight, arranged in two rings of four stamens, but the number can be from four to ten or more. The filaments are often hairy.

The fruit are fleshy or dry, dehiscent or not; the embryo oily or starchy, with no endosperm. These may be capsules, nuts, berries, drupes, schizocarps or a samara. The seeds have a seedcoat. The embryos are bent or coiled.

The largely temperate genera formerly separated in the families Aceraceae (Acer, Dipteronia) and Hippocastanaceae (Aesculus, Billia, Handeliodendron) were included within the Sapindaceae by the APG. Both are basal groups, each of them monophyletic, and may also be treated as small separate families. As the style of APG is to prefer big families whenever possible, the choice is for a wide circumscription of the Sapindaceae.

Sapindaceae includes many species of economically valuable tropical fruit, including the Lychee, the Guarana, the Longan, the Rambutan, the Mamoncillo and the Akee.

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