Characteristic morphological features

Sapindales is overwhelmingly composed of woody plants—mostly trees, large shrubs, and woody climbers. The latter are particularly common in Sapindaceae (Paullinia, Serjania, and Urvillea) and Anacardiaceae (Toxicodendron). Many beautiful forest trees belong to this order. The largest trees are in Sapindaceae; they include Schleichera oleosa (Ceylon oak), which grows to 60 metres (almost 200 feet) in Myanmar (Burma), Pometia pinnata, which grows to 50 metres (about 165 feet) in New Guinea, and Tristiropsis canarioides, which grows to 45 metres (150 feet) in New Guinea. Several species of Anacardiaceae, such as the Old World tropical Campnosperma auriculata, Mangifera lagenifera, and Buchanania lucida, may reach heights of 33 metres (108 feet). In North America the sugar maple may grow to 35 metres (115 feet) high.

Most species of Sapindales have pinnately compound leaves (with the leaflets of each compound leaf arranged along both sides of a central axis). They are rarely palmately compound (the leaflets radiating from the petiole apex) or simple. Leaves are generally alternately arranged along a stem and are only rarely opposite or whorled. An interesting form of leaf is found in Citrus, where the simple blade is separated from the petiole by a joint. Because this type of leaf occurs in other genera of Rutaceae with compound leaves, it is believed that this is reduced from a compound form. Reduction goes still further in Citrus, in which the first one or two leaves of an axillary bud (a bud located in an axil, or upper angle, between a stem and a branch or leaf) are reduced to spines. Leaves of the Asian genus Chisocheton (family Meliaceae) show indeterminate or continuous growth. Stipules are usually absent from the leaves of members of Sapindales.

The flowers may be single in the axils of the leaves, or they may be arranged in racemes (spikelike clusters that bloom from the base upward), cymose spikes (clusters blooming from the top downward), or panicles (many-branched clusters). Flowers of most Sapindales appear to be pollinated by insects. The coloured petals and sometimes stamens of many of these flowers make them conspicuous; fragrance makes others attractive to insects. The disk at the base of the pistil often secretes an abundance of nectar attractive to insects as well. In some species, cross-pollination is favoured by protandry (maturation of the stamens before the stigma of the same flower is receptive to pollen) or protogyny (the stigma matures first).

In a number of families and genera throughout the order, there is a strong tendency toward obligate cross-pollination through the progressive development away from the typical floral bisexuality, in which both sexes are present and functional in the same flower. This culminates in dioecism, a condition where male and female flowers in the species are borne on separate plants. Dioecism has evolved independently in most families. Many members of the order have bisexual and unisexual flowers on the same plant (polygamous). In some inflorescences, for example, the terminal flower is bisexual, while the others are all male or female. This combines the advantages of maximum fertility through inbreeding with increased variability through outcrossing. Many structurally bisexual flowers, as in many maples for example, are functionally unisexual, as either the stamens do not produce fertile pollen, the stigmas are not receptive, or the pistils do not contain ovules. Some species (e.g., Acer platanoides, Norway maple; A. saccharinum, silver maple; and A. spicatum, mountain maple) are self-sterile and must be outcrossed. Most unisexual flowers in the order have become that way after either the pistil or the stamens fail to mature, as the flowers often retain the rudimentary remains of the nonfunctional organ. Thus, although many species of Sapindales have insured cross-pollination and outbreeding, most have not achieved complete anatomical dioecism.

Flowers in Sapindales are either radially or bilaterally symmetrical and are typically small, although there are a number of exceptions to the latter. Generally, both sepals and petals are present. They are usually free, but in some genera sepals may be fused into a calyx or petals into a corolla (e.g., the tropical American genera of Burseraceae, Tetragastris, and Trattinnickia). Petals may be lacking in some (e.g., Acer negundo, box elder).

Stamens are usually double in number of petals, with an outer whorl opposite the sepals and an inner whorl opposite the petals. In some species they are equal to the number of petals and alternate with them, while in others there may be three whorls of stamens or a larger number with whorls that are difficult to distinguish. Filaments are usually free, but they may be fused into a tube in most members of Meliaceae and some members of Rutaceae. Anthers have two locules and open lengthwise. In species with unisexual flowers, staminodes (sterile stamens) are usually present in female flowers. There is almost always a nectar-producing disk between the stamens and the pistil.

The pistil is usually compound, but in a few groups (e.g., Zanthoxylum, Rutaceae) there are separate simple pistils in the flower. The ovary is almost always superior and is composed of 1 to 20 carpels. The ovary is usually multilocular, but it may be multilocular at the base and unilocular above in several members of Meliaceae. It is unilocular in simple pistils. Ovules are typically two per locule, although they may be one or several. Styles are usually united and the same number as the carpels. Functionally male flowers often contain a pistillode (sterile pistil).

The fruit in Sapindales is basically a capsule that splits open between the internal partitions, although it has been modified into a number of other types in most families. For example, in Rutaceae one finds capsules (e.g., Ruta, rue), follicles (Zanthoxylum, prickly ash), drupes (Amyris, torchwood), berries (Triphasia, limeberry), samaras (hop tree), and schizocarps (Helietta, barreta). The fruit of Citrus is a modified berry with a thick rind called a hesperidium, after the golden apples of the Hesperides. In the myth of the Greek hero Heracles, one of Heracles’ 12 labours was the fetching of the golden apples kept by the Hesperides. These mythical apples may well have been based upon oranges, which were not grown in the West in ancient times but which the Greeks may have been aware of because of their trade with the East.

When mature, the seeds of Sapindales may be with or without endosperm, the starchy nutrient tissue that supplies energy for the developing embryo. There are commonly one or two seeds per locule. Some genera of Rutaceae (e.g., Citrus and Zanthoxylum) and Anacardiaceae (Mangifera) contain many embryos in a single seed; these embryos may come from different parts of the ovule besides the fertilized egg. (The formation of an embryo from tissue other than the fertilized egg is called apomixis.) The seeds of Meliaceae are often winged and dispersed by wind. In many Sapindaceae and Burseraceae, the seed is surrounded by a colourful fleshy aril that is attractive to birds, which disperse these seeds. Most families have fleshy fruits attractive to mammals and birds and hard seeds that will pass through their alimentary canals without harm.

Evolution

The evolutionary relationships between the families placed in Sapindales, and between them and other orders, are becoming clarified on the basis of DNA sequence data, morphological resemblances, and chemistry. Sapindales is most closely related to Malvales, Brassicales, and Huertales. Sapindales consists of basically three groups of related families. One group includes the families Rutaceae, Meliaceae, and Simaroubaceae, which share a nectary disk between the anthers and carpels and similar secondary compounds. The second group consists of Anacardiaceae, Burseraceae, and Kirkiaceae, which share small flowers. The third group includes Sapindaceae. Previously recognized families of Aceraceae (maples) and Hippocastanaceae (horse chestnuts) have been shown to be closely related temperate offshoots from within the largely tropical Sapindaceae. In addition, there are two ungrouped families: Biebersteiniaceae and Nitrariaceae.