Fern Tree (Sapindaceae)

Fern Tree (Sapindaceae)

Family : Sapindaceae

Characteristic Features :

Habit : Evergreen trees

Stem : upto 25 m high, bark blackish or reddish-grey, rough; branchlets angular.

Leaves : imparipinnate, alternate, estipulate; rachis 10-23 cm long, articulate, broadly winged, glabrous, swollen at base; leaflets 10-21, opposite or subopposite, sessile; lamina 6-10.5 x 1-3 cm, narrowly elliptic or elliptic-oblong, base acute or oblique, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, wavy, subcoriaceous, glabrous, gland-dotted; lateral nerves many, parallel, close, slender, faint; intercostae reticulate, obscure.

Flowers : polygamous, 5-6 mm across, pinkish-white, in axillary panicles; calyx 5 lobed; lobes imbricate, deciduous; petals 5, orbicular, small; disc 5 lobed, tomentose; stamens 5, free, inserted within the disc; filaments subulate; anthers ovate; ovary superior, globose, sessile, ovules solitary, pendulous; style hooked; stigma simple, bilobed.

Fruit : a drupe, 10-12 mm across, ovoid, purple, shining, apiculate.

seed : one, oblong.