SOAPBERRY FAMILY (SAPINDACEAE) 



141. Jaboncillo, wingleaf soapberry 



Small to medium-sized tree sometimes plajited 

 for shade, characterized by: (1) pinnate leaves 

 8-16 inches long, witli usually 6-12 paired elliptic 

 to lance-shaped dull green leaflets, the green axis 

 often with a wing V^^-Vi ii^ch wide; (2) very nu- 

 merous small 5-parted whitish flowers %6 i'lch 

 across in large branched lateral clustere 6-18 inches 

 long; and (3) shiny brown ball-like berries %-l 

 inch in diameter, borne singly or sometimes 2 or 3 

 together, containing yellow, sticky, bitter, poison- 

 ous flesh and 1 round black poisonous seed. 



An evergreen tree 20-60 feet high and 1 foot in 

 trunk diameter, sometimes larger, with broad 

 crown. The light gray or brown bai'k is smoothish 

 and warty, becoming finely fissured and scaly. 

 Inner bark is light orange brown, slightly bitter 

 and astringent. The stout twigs are light gray 

 with raised reddish-brown dots (lenticels), fiinely 

 hairy when young. 



The alternate leaves have jjaired leaflets with or 

 without a single terminal one. Leaflets are stalk- 

 less or nearly so, 2i/^-6 inches long and l-2i/^ inches 

 wide, mostly short-pointed at lx)th ends, often 

 oblique and unequal-sided with side toward leaf 

 apex much broader, thin, not toothed on edges, 

 beneath slightly paler and sometimes soft hairy. 



The male flowers produced in great quantities 

 seem to fall from the tree almost like rain and litter 

 the ground beneath. Flowers are mostly male but 

 some are female or bisexual (polygamous). In 

 male flowere there are 5 spreading sepals about 

 YiQ inch long, unequal, the outer 2 being smaller, 

 whitish and tinged with green; 5 white hairy 

 petals rounded and smaller than sepals; 8 light 

 yellow stamens more than Vie inch long on a light 

 green disk; and a minute brown nonfunctional 

 pistil. Female flowei-s have besides the sepals and 

 petals shoi'ter stamens and a greenish pistil more 

 than i/ie inch long with 3-celled ovary and slender 

 style. 



One or sometimes 2 or 3 fruits develop from a 

 pistil, the abortive ones remaining as disklike ap- 

 pendages at base. Inside the translucent yellow 

 flesh is the poisonous seed %-Vo inch in diameter. 

 Branches of the flower cluster (panicle) become 

 hard and woody when the fruits mature. 



Sapwood is whitish, and heartwood yellow or 



Sapindus saponaria L. 



light brown. The wood is hard and heavy (spe- 

 cific gravity 0.8), coarse-textured, and not durable 

 when exposed. Used locally for posts and else- 

 where employed in caqjentry. 



The common names refer to the use of the fleshy 

 fruit as a substitute for soap. When cut up, the 

 fleshy part, which contains about 30 percent sap- 

 onin, produces suds abundantly in water. 



Crushed seeds serve as a fish poison when 

 thrown into a stream. An insecticide has been 

 made from gi-ound seeds, and medicinal oil ex- 

 tracted also. Other uses of the seeds are as beads 

 in necklaces, as marbles, and formerly as buttons. 

 Infusions of the roots and leaves have been pre- 

 pared for home remedies. A sliade tree and honey 

 plant. 



In the dry coastal region of Puerto Rico, infre- 

 quently planted for shade. Also in Vieques, St. 

 Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. 



PxjBLio FOREST. — Aguirre. 



Range. — Common and widely distributed in 

 tropical America and spread farther through cul- 

 tivation. Southern Florida including Florida 

 Keys (gi-own also in California and Bermuda) 

 and throughout West Indies from Bahamas and 

 Cuba to Trinidad. Also from Mexico to Ecuador, 

 Galapagos Islands, Pei-u, Argentina, Paraguay, 

 and Brazil. Introduced into Old World tropics. 



Other common names.- — soapberry (Virgin 

 Islands) ; jaboncillo (Spanish) ; palo amargo, 

 chorote, niata de chivo (Dominican Republic) ; 

 giiiril, huiril, jaboncillal (Guatemala) ; paeon 

 (Honduras) ; paci'm (El Salvador) ; paeon, cuyus 

 (Nicaragua); limoncillo (Panama); chumbino, 

 chumbimbo, chocho (Colombia) ; paraparo, pepo 

 (Venezuela) ; jurupe (Ecuador) ; .sulluco (Peru) ; 

 jisotoiibo (Bolivia) ; yequiti, casita, palo-jabon 

 (Argentina) ; wingleaf soapberry, soapberry 

 (United States) ; soapberry (English) ; soapseed 

 Trinidad) ; soap-tree, soapseed-tree, jabon-che 

 (British Honduras) ; savonette pays, graine can- 

 ique, bois savonette (Haiti) ; savonier, savonettier, 

 savonette montagne, bois mausseux, savonette 

 mousseuse (Guadeloupe) ; savonetapel (Curasao) ; 

 sopo sirie (Surinam) ; saboeiro, saboneteiro 

 (Brazil). 



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