Trees or shrubs (or woody vines with tendrils in Cardiospermum and allied genera), rarely herbaceous climbers. Indumentum usually of simple hairs, often glandular on young parts, buds, and inflorescences. Leaves alternate, usually estipulate; leaf blade pinnate or digitate, rarely simple; leaflets alternate to opposite, entire or dentate to serrate. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary thyrse; bracts and bracteoles small. Flowers unisexual, rarely polygamous or bisexual, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, usually small. Sepals 4 or 5(or 6), equal or unequal, free or connate at base, imbricate or valvate. Petals 4 or 5(or 6), sometimes absent, free, imbricate, usually clawed, often with scales or hair-tufted basal appendages. Disk conspicuous, fleshy, complete or interrupted, lobed or annular, rarely absent. Stamens 5-10(-74), usually 8, rarely numerous, variously inserted but usually within disk, often exserted in male flowers; filaments free, rarely connate; anthers dorsifixed, longitudinally dehiscent, introrse; staminodes sometimes present in carpellate flowers, but filaments shorter and anthers with a thick wall, indehiscent. Ovary superior, (1-)3(or 4)-loculed; ovules 1 or 2(or several) per locule, placentation axile, rarely parietal, anatropous, campylotropous, or amphitropous; style usually apical (terminal), semigynobasic in Allophylus [gynobasic in Deinbollia Schumacher & Thonning]; stigma entire or 2 or 3(or 4)-lobed, usually rudimentary in male flowers. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, berry, or drupe, or consisting of 2 or 3 samaras, often 1-seeded and 1-loculed by abortion. Seeds 1(or 2 or more) per locule; testa black or brown, hard, often with a conspicuous fleshy aril or sarcotesta; embryo curved, plicate, or twisted, oily and starchy; endosperm usually absent. 2n = 20-36.
Petals 1–5, sometimes absent, imbricate
Sepals imbricate or rarely valvate
Flowers actinomorphic or zygomorphic, sometimes very small, mostly unisexual, variously arranged
Leaves alternate or rarely opposite, simple, or 1-or 3-foliolate, or pinnate or bipinnate; stipules rarely present
Seeds without endosperm, often conspicuously arillate; embryo with usually plicate or twisted cotyledons
Fruit capsular or indehiscent, rarely winged
Ovary superior, entire or vertically lobed to the base, 1–8-celled; style terminal or gynobasic; ovules 1–2, rarely many in each cell, axile
Stamens hypogynous, often 8, inserted within the disk or unilateral; filaments free, often hairy; anthers 2-celled
Disk usually present, sometimes unilateral
Stamens usually 5–12 (occasionally more numerous), free or ± connate at the base, reduced or rarely absent in 9 flowers
Ovary of 2–8 carpels completely connate or only at the base, loculi 1–2-ovulate, ovules anatropous; style 1; pistillode usually present in female flowers
Petals 0–5, usually with 1–2 scales at the base of the lamina
Disk usually extra-staminal, sometimes unilateral (absent in Dodonaea)
Sepals usually 4–5, often ± connate
Seeds without endosperm, often with an arillode
Fruit capsular or fleshy and indehiscent (berry or drupe) or composed of 1 or more indehiscent cocci (often reduced to 1 by abortion)
Flowers usually spuriously polygamo-dioecious, more rarely monoecious
Inflorescences usually racemoid or paniculate terminal or axillary or caulinary thyrses, or flowers sometimes fasciculate
Trees, shrubs or climbers (rarely herbaceous)
Stipules absent (except in Paullinia and Cardiospermum in our area)
Leaves alternate (rarely opposite, not in our area), simple, 1-foliolate, 3-foliolate, biternate, decompound, paripinnate, imparipinnate or bipinnate
Leaves alternate, sometimes crowded (palm-like) at the apex of the tree, variously simple, ternate, biternate, pinnate or bipinnate, in the latter two kinds most often without a terminal leaflet at maturity; stipules lacking or small
Indumentum commonly of simple hairs, sometimes in tufts in the axils of leaf-veins, rarely fasciculate; glands of several kinds occurring on both vegetative and flowering parts
Trees, shrubs or rarely herbs, sometimes climbing by tendrils
Calyx of (3–)4–5(–7) free or partially united imbricate or valvate sepals
Petals absent or 4–5, often with a basal claw, usually with a simple or elaborated scale on the inner face
Inflorescences axillary or cauliflorous, thyrsoidal, paniculate or racemose
Flowers regular or slightly zygomorphic, unisexual except in some Dodonaea but with non-functional organs of the other sex usually present
Stamens 5–20(–74), often 8, but sometimes variable in number within a species, inserted in most cases inside the disk or occasionally on its surface; filaments free, terete or barely flattened, glabrous or hairy; anthers variously ovoid-sagittate to spherical, sometimes pilose, the connective rarely glandular, dehiscing introrsely by longitudinal slits; pollen grains tricolporate
Disk conspicuous, simple, or rarely a double ring, or reduced to a pair of glands
Fruit a capsule, sometimes lobed, or drupe, often composed of one matured mericarp with the aborted remaining carpels visible at its base
Ovary 1–8-locular; ovules usually 1–2 (rarely several) per locule; style apical, except in >i>Allophylus where semi-gynobasic, entire or 2–3-lobed
Seed usually with a hard black or brown testa, which in one case contains stomata, often with a conspicuous fleshy aril or sarcotesta, without endosperm
Arbres , arbustes ou lianes, rarement herbes, monoïques ou dioïques.'Feuilles'presque toujours alternes, en général paripennées, parfois imparipennées et alors souvent 3-foliolées, rarement simples ou 1-foliolées, sans stipules, sauf chez'Paullinia'et'Cardiospermum .'Inflorescences'terminales ou axillaires, souvent caulinaires, en racèmes ou panicules de cymules, accompagnées parfois de vrilles naissant au sommet des pédoncules.'Fleurs'en général petites, ♂♀ par avortement, les ♀ souvent d'apparence ☿ les 2 sexes souvent réunis dans une même inflorescence, actinomorphes ou zygomorphes; calice à (4)5 sépales souvent ± soudés; corolle, parfois absente, à (4)5 pétales souvent onguiculés et présentant à la base du limbe 1-2 écailles souvent velues, de formes très diverses; disque en général extrastaminal et très développé, ± lobé, souvent unilatéral, (absent chez'Dodonaea ); étamines le plus souvent 8-12 en 2 verticilles, rarement jusqu'à 30, ou 4-5 en 1 verticille, formant souvent un faisceau unilatéral, ± réduites dans la fleur ♀; anthères à 4 loges, en général introrses; pistil à 2-8 carpelles entièrement soudés ou seulement à la base, 2-8-loculaire; loges à 1(2) ovules anatropes, dressés avec raphé ventral, ou pendants avec raphé dorsal; style 1, terminal ou ± gynobasique, à stigmates peu marqués.'Fruits'déhiscents ou indéhiscents et alors charnus (baies ou drupes) ou fruits composés de méricarpes indéhiscents dont 1 ou plusieurs avortent.'Graines campylotropes, exalbuminées, pourvues souvent d'un arillode2 ou parfois à tégument ± charnu; embryon ± courbé; cotylédons souvent inégaux, à réserves lipidiques, parfois amylacées.\n\t\t\tFamille tropicale et subtropicale, surtout américaine, comptant près de 150 genres et plus de 2000 espèces, dont respectivement 22 et 83 au Congo belge. Parmi celles-ci, quelques-unes sont de grands arbres, la plupart des éléments importants du sous-bois des forêts ombrophiles ou des galeries forestières, remarquables souvent par leur port palmiforme; beaucoup sont encore imparfaitement connues.\n\t\t\tEn dehors de l'emploi de quelques espèces en médecine indigène, il y a peu de choses à signaler dans leurs usages. On cultive fréquemment'Nephelium lappaceum'L., le Ramboutan d'Indo-Malaisie, dont on mange le tégument charnu de la graine, plus rarement'Melicocca bijuga'L. d'Amérique du Sud et'Litchi sinensis Sonn.\n\t\t\tOn trouvera dans W. Leinfeller, Öster. Bot. Zeits., CV, p. 443-514 (décembre 1958), paru lorsque ce texte était déjà composé, une étude approfondie des écailles des pétales des Sapindacées : plusieurs de nos espèces y sont analysées et figurées.
