Hippocastanoideae is a
subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classifica ...
of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...
s in the
soapberry Soapberry is a common name for several plants and may refer to:
* Plants in the genus ''Sapindus'', native to warm temperate to tropical regions in both the Old World and the New World. The berries of these plants contain a natural, low-sudsing de ...
family
Sapindaceae
The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1858 accepted species. Examples include horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee.
The Sapindaceae occur in temp ...
. The group was formerly treated as the separate families Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae.
Molecular phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
research by Harrington et al. (2005) has shown that while both the Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae are
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gr ...
in themselves, their removal from the Sapindaceae ''sensu lato'' would leave Sapindaceae ''sensu stricto'' as a
paraphyletic
In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...
group, particularly with reference to the genus ''
Xanthoceras
''Xanthoceras sorbifolium'', the yellowhorn, shiny leaf yellowhorn, goldenhorn, or Chinese flowering chestnut, is a woody oil tree species in the family Sapindaceae, and the only species in the genus ''Xanthoceras''. It is native to northern Chin ...
''.
The most widespread genera are ''
Acer'' (the maples) and ''
Aesculus
The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six spe ...
'' (the horse chestnuts and buckeyes). A feature of the subfamily is the palmate compound leaves.
Hippocastanaceae
in L.Watson and M.J.Dallwitz. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants.
Genera
References
Rosid subfamilies
{{Sapindales-stub