Dipteronia

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.

The name Dipteronia stems from the Greek “di-” (two, both) & “pteron” (wings), from the winged fruits with wings on both sides of the seed.

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.