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 Fossil D. brownii samara
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Dipteronia is a genus of two living and one extinct[1] 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) [2])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 living 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. Dipteronia browni is an extinct species from the early Eocene Klondike Mountain Formation of Washington.
The name Dipteronia stems from the Greek "di-" (two, both) & "pteron" (wings), from the winged fruits with wings on both sides of the seed.
References
- ^ McClain, Amy, M & Manchester, Steven R. (2001). Dipteronia (Sapindaceae) from the Tertiary of North America and implications for the phytogeographic history of the Aceroideae. American Journal of Botany 88(7):1316-1325
- ^ 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).
- McClain, Amy, M & Manchester, Steven R. (2001). Dipteronia (Sapindaceae) from the Tertiary of North America and implications for the phytogeographic history of the Aceroideae. American Journal of Botany 88(7):1316-1325
- 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.
