DIPTERONIA

'''Dipteronia''' is a genus of two species, regarded in the soapberry family Sapindaceae ''sensu lato'' after Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG I 1998, APG II 2003) and more recently (Harrington ''et al.'' 2005) ^[1])or traditionally by several authors in Aceraceae, related to the maples.
They are deciduous flowering shrubs or small trees, reaching 10-15 m tall.
The leaf arrangement is opposite and pinnate. The inflorescences are paniculate, terminal or axillary. The flowers have five sepals and petals; staminate flowers have eight stamens, and bisexual flowers have a two-celled ovary. The fruit is a rounded samara containing two compressed nutlets, flat, encircled by a broad wing which turns from light green to red with ripening.
There are only two species, ''Dipteronia sinensis'' and ''Dipteronia dyeriana''; both are endemic to mainland China. ''Dipteronia dyeriana'' is listed by the IUCN as being a "Red List" threatened species.
The name ''Dipteronia'' stems from the Greek "di-" (two, both) & "pteron" (wings), from the winged fruits with wings on both sides of the seed.

Contents

References

References

1. Harrington, M. G., K. J. Edwards, S. A. Johnson, M. W. Chase, and P. A. Gadek. 2005. Phylogenetic inference in Sapindaceae sensu lato using plastid matK and rbcL DNA sequences. ''Systematic Botany'' 30: 366-382 (abstract here).


★ Qiu, Ying-Xiong; Luo, Yu-Ping; Comes, Hans Peter; Ouyang, Zhi-Qin; Fu, Cheng-Xin (2007). Population genetic diversity and structure of ''Dipteronia dyerana'' (Sapindaceae), a rare endemic from Yunnan Province, China, with implications for conservation. ''Taxon'' 56(2):427-437.