ACERACEAE

'Aceraceae' is a family of flowering plants also called the 'Maple Family'. It contains two to four genera, depending upon the circumscription, of some 120 species of trees and shrubs. A common character is that the leaves are opposite, and the fruit a schizocarp.^[1]
The maples have long been known to be closely related to the family Sapindaceae. Several taxonomists (including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) now include both the Aceraceae and the Hippocastanaceae in the Sapindaceae. Recent research (Harrington et al. 2005^[2]) has shown that while both Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae are monophyletic in themselves, their removal from Sapindaceae ''sensu lato'' would leave Sapindaceae ''sensu stricto'' as a paraphyletic group, particularly with reference to the genus ''Xanthoceras''.

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References

References

1. Aceraceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards), ''The families of flowering plants''.
2. Harrington, M. G., Edwards, K. J., Johnson, S. A., Chase, M. W., & Gadek, P. A. (2005). Phylogenetic inference in Sapindaceae sensu lato using plastid matK and rbcL DNA sequences. ''Systematic Botany'' 30: 366-382. Abstract.