Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Literature for Alectryon macrococcus
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. Literature for Alectryon macrococcus var. auwahiensis
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Sapindaceae -- The Soapberry Family Bibliography
      Alectryon macrococcus
General Information
Distribution
Habit
Trees (3-)4-11 m tall; branches reddish brown, striate, the youngest ones yellowish brown tomentose.
Leaves
Leaves coriaceous to chartaceous, usually 20-55 cm long, leaflets (1)2-5 pairs, these elliptic to elliptic-ovate or elliptic-oblanceolate, usually slightly asymmetrical, 10-28 cm long, 4-12 cm wide, tertiary and higher order venation forming a conspicuous reticulate pattern, upper surface glossy, glabrous, lower surface densely brown tomentose when young (on Kaua`i sparsely puberulent), usually becoming more sparsely so or glabrate at maturity, rarely the hairs persistent at maturity, apex acuminate to obtuse, base broadly cuneate to rounded, petiolules 1-1.5 cm long.
Flowers
Flowers perfect or staminate, in panicles up to 30 cm long, pedicels 0.5-3 mm long, bracts 1-3 mm long, caducous; calyx cup-shaped, 1.5-2.5 mm long, the lobes unequal, narrowly deltate; petals absent; stamens 6-8 in perfect flowers, 9-13 in staminate flowers; filaments puberulent; ovary 2-celled, pistillode rudimentary in staminate flowers, densely pubescent.
Fruit
Fruit of 1(2) mericarps, each subglobose, 2.5-7 cm in diameter, the second mericarp usually abortive and much smaller or inconspicuous, pericarp ca. 3 mm thick, irregularly scarlet on inner surface.
Seeds
Seed glossy pale brown, testa hard, ca. 1 mm thick, at base with irregular projections 5-10 mm long overlapping aril, aril scarlet, firm-fleshy, smooth, with an irregular sinus on 1 side.
Chromosomes
2n = 32*