Hippocastanoideae

Hippocastanoideae is a subfamily of flowering plants in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.^[1] The group was formerly treated as the separate families Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae. Molecular phylogenetic research by Harrington et al. (2005)^[2] has shown that while both the Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae are monophyletic in themselves, their removal from the Sapindaceae sensu lato would leave Sapindaceae sensu stricto as a paraphyletic group, particularly with reference to the genus Xanthoceras.

Hippocastanoideae
Aesculus hippocastanum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Sapindales
Family:	Sapindaceae
Subfamily:	Hippocastanoideae Dumortier
Genera
Acer Aesculus Billia Dipteronia Handeliodendron

The most widespread genera are Acer (the maples) and Aesculus (the horse chestnuts and buckeyes). A feature of the subfamily is the palmate compound leaves.^[3]

Genera

Genus	Authority	Common Name	Number of Living Species	Image
Acer	Linnaeus	Maples	160	Acer palmatum
Aesculus	Linnaeus	Horse-chestnuts & buckeyes	13-19	Aesculus parviflora
Billia	Peyeitsch		2	Billia colombiana
Dipteronia	Oliver		2	Dipteronia sinensis
Handeliodendron	Rehder		1

References

1. "Genera of Sapindaceae subfam. Hippocastanoideae". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
2. Harrington, M. G., Edwards, K. J., Johnson, S. A., Chase, M. W., & Gadek, P. A. (2005). Phylogenetic inference in Sapindaceae sensu lato using plastid matK and rbcL DNA sequences. Systematic Botany 30: 366-382. Abstract.
3. Hippocastanaceae Archived 2006-03-18 at the Wayback Machine in L.Watson and M.J.Dallwitz. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants.

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