1. SAPINDUS L. Soapberry.
Trees or shrubs, with terete branches, without a terminal bud, marked by large obcordate leaf-scars showing the ends of 3 equidistant fibro-vascular bundles, small globose axillary buds often superposed in pairs, the upper bud the larger, and thick fleshy roots. Leaves equally or rarely unequally pinnate. Flowers regular, minute, polygamo-diœcious, on short pedicels from the axils of minute deciduous bracts, in ample axillary or terminal panicles; sepals 4 or 5, unequal, slightly united at base; petals 4 or 5, equal, alternate with the sepals, inserted under the thick edge of the annular fleshy entire crenately lobed disk, unguiculate, naked or furnished at the summit of the claw on the inside with a 2-cleft scale, deciduous; stamens usually 8 or 10, inserted on the disk immediately under the ovary, equal; filaments subulate or filiform, often pilose, exserted in the staminate, much shorter in the pistillate flower; anthers oblong, attached near the base; pistils 2 or 3, united; ovary sessile, entire or 2—4-lobed, 2—4-celled, narrowed into a short columnar style, rudimentary in the staminate flower; stigma 2—4-lobed, the lobes spreading; ovule solitary in each cell, ascending from below the inner angle of the cell; raphe ventral; micropyle inferior. Fruit baccate, coriaceous, 1—3-seeded, usually formed of 1 globose coriaceous carpel, with the rudiments of the others remaining at its base, or of 2 or sometimes 3 carpels more or less connate by their base and then 2—3-lobed. Seed solitary in each carpel, obovoid or globose; seed-coat bony, smooth, black or dark brown; tegmen membranaceous or fleshy; hilum oblong, surrounded by an ariloid tuft of long pale silky hairs; embryo incurved or straight; cotyledons thick and fleshy, incumbent; radicle very short, inferior, near the hilum.
Sapindus is widely distributed through the tropics, especially in Asia, occasionally extending into colder regions. About forty species have been distinguished; of these three are found within the territory of the United States.
Sapindus contains a detersive principle which causes the pulp of the fruit to lather in water, and makes it valuable as a substitute for soap. The bark, which is bitter and astringent, has been used as a tonic. The seeds of several of the species are strung for chaplets and bracelets and are used as buttons.
The generic name, from sapo and Indus, refers to the detersive properties and use of the first species known to Europeans, a native of the West Indies.
CONSPECTUS OF THE SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Leaves persistent. Rachis of the leaf interrupted-winged, with usually broad wings; leaflets 4—9, oblong-lanceolate and acute to elliptic-ovate or oblong, tomentulose below; petals without scales; fruit globose, orange-brown.1. [S. saponaria] (D). Rachis of the leaf without wings narrow-margined or marginless; leaflets 7—13, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, often somewhat falcate, glabrous below; petals with scales; fruit somewhat oblong, dorsally keeled, yellow.2. [S. marginatus] (C). Leaves deciduous, their rachis without marginal borders; leaflets 8—18, lanceolate, mostly falcate, soft-pubescent or ultimately glabrous below; petals with scales; fruit globose, not keeled, turning black in drying.3. [S. Drummondii] (C, E).
1. [Sapindus saponaria] L.
Leaves 6′—7′ long, with a broad winged rachis, the wings narrow and often nearly obsolete below the lowest pair of leaflets, and sometimes nearly ½′ wide below the upper pair, and usually 7—9 elliptic to oblong-lanceolate leaflets, rounded or slightly emarginate at apex, gradually narrowed at base and very short-petiolulate, soft-pubescent on the lower surface when they unfold, and at maturity rather coriaceous, yellow-green, paler and tomentulose below, prominently reticulate-venulose, 3′—4′ long and 1½′ wide, with a yellow midrib and primary veins, those of the lowest pair smaller than the others; rarely reduced to a single leaflet. Flowers appearing in Florida in November, usually produced 3 together on short pedicels, in terminal panicles 7′—10′ in length, with an angulate peduncle and branches; calyx-lobes acute, concave, ciliate on the margins, the 2 outer rather smaller than those of the inner rank, much shorter than the white, ovate, short-clawed petals, without scales, rounded at apex and covered, especially toward the base, with long scattered hairs; ovary slightly 3-lobed; stamens included or slightly exserted, with hairy filaments broadened at base. Fruit ripening in spring or in early summer, globose, ⅔′—¾′ in diameter, with thin orange-brown semitranslucent flesh; seeds obovoid, black, 1′ in diameter.
A tree, sometimes 25°—30° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 10′—12′ in diameter, erect branches and slender branchlets at first slightly many-angled and puberulous, soon glabrous, orange-green and marked by white lenticels, becoming in their second season terete, pale brown faintly tinged with red. Bark of the trunk ¼′—½′ thick, light gray and roughened by oblong lighter colored excrescences, the outer layer exfoliating in large flakes exposing the nearly black inner bark. Wood heavy, rather hard, close-grained, light brown tinged with yellow, with thick yellow sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, shores of Cape Sable, shores and islands of Caximbas Bay, Key Largo, Elliott’s Key, and the shores of Bay Biscayne, Dade County; in Florida most common in the region of Cape Sable, and of its largest size on some of the Ten Thousand Islands, Lee County; generally distributed through the West Indies to Venezuela and Ecuador.
2. [Sapindus marginatus] Willd.
Sapindus manatensis Radlk.
Leaves 6′—7′ long, with a slender wingless or narrow-margined or marginless rachis, and 7—13 lance-oblong acuminate more or less falcate leaflets, glabrous, dark green, and lustrous on the upper surface, paler and glabrous or puberulous on the lower surface along the slender midrib, sessile or very short-petiolulate, 2′—5′ long, ¾′—1¼′ wide, the lower usually alternate, the upper opposite. Flowers appearing in early spring, more or less tinged with red and nearly ⅛′ in diameter, on short stout tomentose pedicels, in panicles 4′—5′ long and usually about 3′ wide, with a villose stem and branches; sepals acute, concave, ciliate on the margins, much shorter than the ovate-oblong, short-clawed, ciliate petals furnished on the inner surface near the base with a 2-lobed villose scale; filaments villose; ovary 3-lobed. Fruit conspicuously keeled on the back, short-oblong to slightly obovoid, about ¾′ long, with thin light yellow translucent flesh; seeds obovoid, dark brown.
A tree, rarely more than 25°—30° high, with a trunk sometimes 1° in diameter, and stout pale brown or ultimately ashy gray branchlets.
Distribution. Hurricane Island at the mouth of Medway River, Liberty County, Georgia (Miss J. King); hummocks, peninsular of Florida to Alachua and Manatee Counties; not common; in Cuba.
3. [Sapindus Drummondii] Hook. & Arn. Wild China-tree.
Leaves appearing in March and April, with a slender grooved puberulous rachis, without wings, and 4—9 pairs of alternate obliquely lanceolate acuminate leaflets, glabrous on the upper surface and covered with short pale pubescence on the lower surface, coriaceous, prominently reticulate-venulose, pale yellow-green, 2′—3′ long, ½′—⅔′ wide, short-petiolulate; deciduous in the autumn or early winter. Flowers appearing in May and June in clusters 6′—9′ long and 5′—6′ wide, with a pubescent many-angled stem and branches; sepals acute and concave, ciliate on the margins, much shorter than the obovate white petals rounded at apex, contracted into a long claw hairy on the inner surface and furnished at base with a deeply cleft scale hairy on the margins; filaments hairy, with long soft hairs. Fruit ripening in September and October, persistent on the branches until the following spring, glabrous, not keeled, yellow, ½′ in diameter, turning black in drying; seeds obovoid, dark brown.
A tree, 40°—50° high, with a trunk sometimes 1½°—2° in diameter, usually erect branches, and branchlets at first slightly many-angled, pale yellow-green, pubescent, becoming in their second year terete, pale gray, slightly puberulous, and marked by numerous small lenticels. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, separating by deep fissures into long narrow plates broken on the surface into small red-brown scales. Wood heavy, strong, close-grained, light brown tinged with yellow, with lighter colored sapwood of about 30 layers of annual growth; splitting easily into thin strips and largely used in the manufacture of baskets used in harvesting cotton, and for the frames of pack-saddles.
Distribution. Moist clay soil or dry limestone uplands; southwestern Missouri to northeastern and southern Kansas, eastern Louisiana (Tangipahoa Parish R. S. Cocks), and to extreme western and southwestern Oklahoma, through eastern Texas to the Rio Grande, over the Edwards Plateau, and in the mountain valleys of western Texas and of southern New Mexico and Arizona; in northern Mexico.