Sapindus marginatus Willd.

Florida Soapberry

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Florida Soapberry is a native deciduous shrub or small tree in the Soapberry family (Sapindaceae). It is native to the southeastern United States. In Alabama it is found in coastal areas on shell middens. Florida Soapberry is a small tree or large shrub up to 30 feet in height. The bark is pale gray to brown and scaly. Young twigs are green in color, glabrous, with long narrow lenticels. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, and odd pinnately compound. Each leaf has 6-13 leaflets and the rachis lacks a wing. Leaflets are lanceolate, sharply pointed, and entire margins. The leaves are deciduous in the early spring. Flowers are produced in terminal panicles. Individual flowers are either male or female with male flowers opening first. Individual flowers are inconspicuous with 5 white to yellowish or greenish petals, 8 stamens, and a 3-locular ovary. The fruit is golden-yellowish, leathery, wrinkled, asymmetrical, and drupe-like. It contains a single large, black, poisonous seed. Tropical Soapberry (Sapindus saponaria) is sometimes cultivated. It has a winged rachis and blunt tipped leaflets. Some botanists consider Sapindus marginatus and Sapindus saponaria be the same species.—A. Diamond.

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Native

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