Cupania
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Sapindaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Small to large trees. Leaves pinnately compound with a rudimentary distal leaflet; leaflets mostly serrate, alternate or opposite, the petiolules usually short and not enlarged; rachis cylindrical or angled; stipules wanting. Flowers 5-merous, actinomorphic, bisexual or unisexual (the plants polygamo-dioecious), in axillary or terminal panicles or thyrses; sepals short (2-4 mm long), imbricate, usually tomentose; petals as long as the sepals, with a pair of marginal tomentose appendages; nectary disk annular, usually lobed; stamens 8, the filaments of equal length, longer than the petals, tomentose and filiform, the anthers dorsifixed, ovoid or oval with retuse apex; ovary 3-carpellate, each locule with a single ovule. Fruit a woody capsule with 2 or 3 locules, each 1-seeded; seeds covered at base by a fleshy coat.
Distribution and Ecology - About 50 species from tropical and subtropical America.