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Pakistan | Family List | Sapindaceae | Sapindus

Sapindus emarginatus Vahl, Symb. Bot. 3:54. 1794. Roxb., Fl. Ind. 331. 1832; Dalz. & Gibs., Bomb. Fl. 35. 1861; Butterworth, Madras Trees, 130. 1911.

Medium sized tree. Leaves 12-17 cm long; leaflets 2-3 pairs, opposite, 6-11 cm long, 4.5-9 cm broad, elliptic-ovate, glabrous or pubescent beneath, obtuse to emarginate, terminal pair largest; petiolule c. 5 mm long, pubescent. Flowers in terminal pubescent panicles; bract 1; bracteoles 2, c. 1 mm long, subulate, pubescent, persistent; pedicel 3-4 mm long. Sepals 5, ovate, clawed, ciliate, with woolly scales above the claw. Disc concave, 5-lobed, hirsute. Stamens 8, free; unequal; filaments 3-4 mm long, hairy; anthers 1.5 mm long, apiculate; pistillode present in the male flower. Ovary ovoid, c. 3 mm long, 3-locular, hairy; style 2 mm long; stigma trifid; staminodes 8 in the female flower. Berry 3-lobed, with 1 or 2 undeveloped cocci, obovoid, 1.2-1.5 cm long, 1.5 cm broad, rusty-pubescent. Seeds black, globose, c. 6 mm in dia¬meter.

Fl. Per.: Nov-Jan.

Type: in India orientali Koenig.

Distribution: Burma, Ceylon, and the dry deciduous forests of the Deccan and Carnatic.

Like the previous species, the tree is valued most for its saponin containing fruit, and is commonly cultivated in villages. In West Pakistan the tree is rare.


 

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