Dodonaea is a genus of about 70 species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s in the soapberry

Sapindus

Sapindus is a genus of about five to twelve species of shrubs and small trees in the Lychee family, Sapindaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions in both the Old World and New World. The genus includes both deciduous and evergreen species. Members of the genus are commonly known as...

 family, Sapindaceae

Sapindaceae

Sapindaceae, also known as the soapberry family, is a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales. There are about 140-150 genera with 1400-2000 species, including maple, horse chestnut and lychee....

, with a cosmopolitan distribution

Cosmopolitan distribution

In biogeography, a taxon is said to have a cosmopolitan distribution if its range extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. For instance, the killer whale has a cosmopolitan distribution, extending over most of the world's oceans. Other examples include humans, the lichen...

 in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, southern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and Australasia

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

. By far the highest species diversity is in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The genus is named after Rembert Dodoens

Rembert Dodoens

Rembert Dodoens was a Flemish physician and botanist, also known under his Latinized name Rembertus Dodonaeus.-Biography:...

, also known as Rembertus Dodonaeus.

They are shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s and small tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s growing to 1–5 m (3.3–16.4 ft) tall. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are alternate, simple or pinnate. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are produced in short raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s. The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is a capsule

Capsule (fruit)

In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a structure composed of two or more carpels that in most cases is dehiscent, i.e. at maturity, it splits apart to release the seeds within. A few capsules are indehiscent, for example...

, often with two or three wings.
Dodonaea species are used as food plants by the larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e of some Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 species including Aenetus eximia

Aenetus

Aenetus is a genus of moths of the family Hepialidae. There are 24 described species found in Indonesia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand. Most species have green or blue forewings and reddish hindwings but some are predominantly brown or white...

and Aenetus ligniveren

Aenetus

Aenetus is a genus of moths of the family Hepialidae. There are 24 described species found in Indonesia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand. Most species have green or blue forewings and reddish hindwings but some are predominantly brown or white...

.

Species

• Dodonaea adenophora Miq.
• Dodonaea amblyophylla Diels
• Dodonaea aptera
  Dodonaea aptera
  Dodonaea aptera, commonly known as Coast Hop-bush, is a species of coastal shrub endemic to Western Australia.-Taxonomy:The species was published by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel in 1845, based on specimens collected in 1839 at Garden Island, Rottnest Island, and Arthurs Head,...
  
  Miq. – Coast Hop-bush (Western Australia
  Western Australia
  Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
  
  )
• Dodonaea baueri Endl.
• Dodonaea bilobaJ.G.West
• Dodonaea boroniifolia G.Don
• Dodonaea bursariifolia F.Muell.
• Dodonaea caespitosa Diels
• Dodonaea camfieldii Maiden & Betche
• Dodonaea ceratocarpa Endl.
• Dodonaea concinna Benth.
• Dodonaea coriacea (Ewart & O.B.Davies) McGill.
• Dodonaea divaricata Benth.
• Dodonaea ericifolia G.Don
• Dodonaea ericoides Miq.
• Dodonaea falcataJ.G.West
• Dodonaea filifoliaHook.
• Dodonaea filiformis Link
• Dodonaea glandulosaJ.G.West
• Dodonaea hackettiana W.Fitzg.
• Dodonaea heteromorphaJ.G.West
• Dodonaea hexandra F.Muell.
• Dodonaea hirsuta Maiden & Betche
• Dodonaea humifusa Miq.
• Dodonaea humilis Endl.
• Dodonaea inaequifolia Turcz.
• Dodonaea intricataJ.G.West
• Dodonaea lanceolata F.Muell.
• Dodonaea larreoides Turcz.
• Dodonaea lobulata F.Muell.
• Dodonaea macrossanii F.Muell. & Scort.
• Dodonaea madagascariensis Radlk.
• Dodonaea megazyga (F.Muell.) F.Muell. ex Benth.
• Dodonaea microzyga F.Muell.
• Dodonaea multijuga G.Don.
• Dodonaea oxyptera F.Muell.
• Dodonaea pachyneura F.Muell.
• Dodonaea peduncularis Lindl.
• Dodonaea petiolaris
  Dodonaea petiolaris
  Dodonaea petiolaris is a shrub species in the genus Dodonaea found in Australia.-Description :It is an erect shrub, 1–2 m high living on sandy and loamy soils, on rocky hillsides and ridges...
  
  F.Muell.
• Dodonaea physocarpa F.Muell.
• Dodonaea pinifolia Miq.
• Dodonaea pinnata Sm.
• Dodonaea platyptera F.Muell.
• Dodonaea polyandra Merr. & L.M.Perry
• Dodonaea polyzyga F.Muell.
• Dodonaea procumbens F.Muell.
• Dodonaea ptarmicifolia Turcz.
• Dodonaea rhombifolia N.A.Wakef.
• Dodonaea rigida J.G.West
• Dodonaea rupicola C.T.White
• Dodonaea serratifolia McGill.
• Dodonaea sinuolata J.G.West
• Dodonaea spatulata Sm.
• Dodonaea stenophylla F.Muell.
• Dodonaea stenozyga F.Muell.
• Dodonaea subglanduliferaJ.G.West
• Dodonaea tenuifolia Lindl.
• Dodonaea tepperi F.Muell. ex Tepper
• Dodonaea triangularis Lindl.
• Dodonaea trifida F.Muell.
• Dodonaea triquetra
  Dodonaea triquetra
  Dodonaea triquetra, known as Common Hop Bush or Large Leaf Hop Bush, is a species of shrub occurring in eastern Australia.-Description:...
  
  J.C.Wendl.
• Dodonaea truncatiales F.Muell.
• Dodonaea uncinata J.G.West
• Dodonaea vestita Hook.
• Dodonaea viscosa
  Dodonaea viscosa
  Dodonaea viscosa is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae, that has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa, the Americas, southern Asia and Australasia.-Description:...
  
  Jacq.
  Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin
  Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin or Baron Nikolaus von Jacquin. was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany....
  
  (Pantropical)
  • Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustifolia
    Dodonaea angustifolia
    The Sand olive is a slender shrub or small tree that occurs naturally from southern Africa to Arabia, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. The seed capsules are three-winged and are dispersed by wind. Although naturally occurring in rocky areas it is also cultivated to stabilise moving sand and...
    
    (L.f.) J.G.West
  • Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustissima (DC.) J.G.West
  • Dodonaea viscosa subsp. cuneata (Sm.) J.G.West
  • Dodonaea viscosa subsp. viscosa

Formerly placed here:

• Combretum caffrum
  Combretum caffrum
  Combretum caffrum is the Eastern Cape South African Bushwillow tree.-Biochemistry:In C. caffrum, combretastatins A-1, A-4 and B-1 can be found....
  
  (Eckl. & Zeyh.) Kuntze (as D. caffra Eckl. & Zeyh.)