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Cupaniopsis anacardioides

(Brush Deal)

Overview

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Tree . C. anacardioides commonly known as carrotwood is an evergreen tree that is usually single-trunked and grows to 10.7m tall. It is capable of invading herbaceous and scrub communities. Once introduced , carrotwood forms dense monocultures , crowding out and out-competing native plants for available light and nutrients . Birds disperse the seeds and contribute to a rapidly expanding wild population that includes isolated islands. Gilman and Watson (1993) state that, "C. anacardioides is truly a durable, urban-tolerant tree, able to grow even in confined planting pits in downtown sidewalks. Perhaps it is best used in these areas. Selected, upright branches in the crown can be removed to allow for more light penetration and better turf growth under the crown. If not, the dense canopy will shade out all but the most shade-tolerant plants. The wood is bright apricot-colored in cross-section, and resists breakage because it is hard. If you cut one down , save the wood. Wood-workers enjoy turning it on a lathe and making spindles and bowls ." Lockhart (1999) states that, "C. anacardioides has also been used ornamentally in California, but there are no reports of naturalized populations there, perhaps due to their drier climate. Cold tolerance may limit its potential distribution."

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Brush Deal, Carrot Weed, Carrotwood, Cupania, Tuckeroo

Description

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Family Sapindaceae

Trees or shrubs (or woody vines with tendrils in Cardiospermum and allied genera), rarely herbaceous climbers . Indumentum usually of simple hairs , often glandular on young parts, buds, and inflorescences. Leaves alternate, usually estipulate; leaf blade pinnate or digitate, rarely simple; leaflets alternate to opposite, entire or dentate to serrate. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary thyrse ; bracts and bracteoles small. Flowers unisexual , rarely polygamous or bisexual , actinomorphic or zygomorphic, usually small. Sepals 4 or 5(or 6), equal or unequal, free or connate at base , imbricate or valvate . Petals 4 or 5(or 6), sometimes absent, free, imbricate, usually clawed, often with scales or hair-tufted basal appendages . Disk conspicuous , fleshy , complete or interrupted , lobed or annular , rarely absent. Stamens 5-10(-74), usually 8, rarely numerous , variously inserted but usually within disk, often exserted in male flowers; filaments free, rarely connate; anthers dorsifixed , longitudinally dehiscent , introrse ; staminodes sometimes present in carpellate flowers, but filaments shorter and anthers with a thick wall, indehiscent. Ovary superior, (1-) 3(or 4) -loculed; ovules 1 or 2(or several) per locule, placentation axile , rarely parietal , anatropous , campylotropous, or amphitropous ; style usually apical (terminal), semigynobasic in Allophylus [gynobasic in Deinbollia Schumacher & Thonning]; stigma entire or 2 or 3(or 4) -lobed, usually rudimentary in male flowers. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, berry, or drupe, or consisting of 2 or 3 samaras, often 1-seeded and 1-loculed by abortion . Seeds 1(or 2 or more) per locule; testa black or brown, hard, often with a conspicuous fleshy aril or sarcotesta ; embryo curved , plicate , or twisted, oily and starchy; endosperm usually absent. 2n = 20-36.

One hundred thirty-five genera and ca. 1500 species: widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, especially well represented in tropical SE Asia; 21 genera (one endemic) and 52 species (16 endemic, one introduced ) in China.

There is some variation in the circumscription of Sapindaceae in taxonomic treatments, particularly with regard to the inclusion of genera from the closely related, predominately temperate families Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae. Several studies including Müller and Leenhouts (in Ferguson & Müller, Evolutionary Significance Exine: 407-445. 1976), and more recently those based on molecular data (Stevens, Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, 2001 onward; Harrington et al. , Syst. Bot. 30: 366-382. 2005), supported the recognition of a broadly defined Sapindaceae incorporating Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae. Harrington et al. (loc. cit. ) proposed four subfamilies or clades, comprising Sapindoideae (including

Koelreuteria and Ungnadia Endlicher), Dodonaeoideae, Hippocastanoideae (including taxa previously referred to Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae, plus Handeliodendron), and a monotypic "Xanthoceratoideae". Within Hippocastanoideae, Acer Linnaeus and Dipteronia Oliver comprise a monophyletic group and are treated in this Flora as Aceraceae. Similarly, Aesculus Linnaeus, Billia Peyritsch, and the Chinese endemic Handeliodendron Rehder form a monophyletic group and are treated here as Hippocastanaceae. There is some support for "Xanthoceratoideae" being the first lineage to diverge within the broadly defined Sapindaceae assemblage; consequently, Xanthoceras is treated separately from genera in Sapindoideae and Dodonaeoideae in the following account of Sapindaceae s.s. The sequence of genera reflects Müller and Leenhouts (loc. cit.) as modified by recent analyses based on molecular and morphological data, rather than following the order developed by Radlkofer (Sitzungsber. Math.-Phys. Cl. Königl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. München 20: 105-379. 1890; and in Engler, Pflanzenreich 98a-h(IV . 165) : 1-1539. 1931-1934), which was previously followed in FRPS.

The main economic uses of this family include (1) timber: Amesiodendron chinense, Dimocarpus longan, D. confinis, Litchi chinensis, Pavieasia kwangsiensis, and Pometia pinnata; (2) fruit: Dimocarpus longan, Litchi chinensis, and Nephelium lappaceum; (3) medicine: Dimocarpus longan (arillode ), Litchi chinensis (seeds), and Sapindus saponaria (roots ) ; (4) oil : Amesiodendron chinense, Delavaya toxocarpa, and Xanthoceras sorbifolium. Saponins occur widely in the family, commonly used as a fish poison and for their detergent properties.[1]

Genus Cupaniopsis

Trees or shrubs , Leaves exstipulate , alternate, compound ; leaflets alternate to opposite, entire. Flowers regular or irregular, in axillary and sub-terminal panicles. Sepals 4-5, free or connate at the base , imbricate, in 2 rows . Petals 4-5 or absent, with or without scales . Disc annular , fleshy , glabrous . Stamens 6-10, sometimes less, free, usually exserted. Ovary ovoid or obovoid , 2-4 locular ; ovules solitary. Fruit capsular , 2-4-lobed, lobes connate or free, sometimes compressed . Seeds sub-globose to oblong , arillate .

A genus of about 60 species, distributed in Australia and Polynesia.[2]

Physical Description

Species Cupaniopsis anacardioides

C. anacardioides or carrotwood has been described as a usually single-trunked evergreen tree . It grows to a height of 10.7m tall. The outer bark is dark grey. but, the inner bark is orange colored , hence the name carrotwood. C. anacardioides leaves are compound , alternate, and usually even-pinnate (a compound leaf whose terminal leaflets are a pair). Petioles (leaf stalks) are swollen at the base . Leaflets are 4-12, stalked , oblong , leathery, shiny yellowish-green, to 20.3cm long and 7.6cm wide, with untoothed margins , and tips rounded or slightly indented . Carrotwood bears numerous white to greenish yellow flowers in branched clusters to 35.6cm long in winter months. Fruit are the most striking identifying characteristic, being a short-stalked woody capsule to 2.54cm across, with 3 distinctly ridged segments, yellow orange when ripe , drying to brown and splitting open to expose 3 shiny oval black seeds covered by a yellow-red crust (Langeland, 2003).

Habit: Tree

Flowers: Bloom Period: June. • Flower Color: inconspicuous, none

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 30-40' tall.

Habitat

C. anacardioides is capable of invading herbaceous and scrub communities. These include wetlands, coastal prairies, dunes, coastal strands and other similar communities (Gordon 1998; Lockhart et al. 1999). Langeland (2003) adds the following habitats that this species invades: spoil islands, marshes, tropical hammocks , pinelands, and mangrove and cypress swamps . Lockhart (1999) states that, "C. anacardioides is tolerant of salt, poor soils, poor drainage , sunlight and shade. C. anacardioides can adapt to dry areas, and appears in disturbed and undisturbed sites."

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 610 meters (0 to 2,001 feet).[3]

Ecology: Once introduced , carrotwood forms dense monocultures , crowding out and out-competing native plants for available light and nutrients (Lockhart, 1999) . Gordon (1998) includes C. anacardioides with several other species of non-indigenous trees that, "invade predominantly herbaceous (wetland, coastal prairie, dune, etc.) or scrub (coastal strand ) communities, adding an infrequent or new life-form to those communities and changing the vertical structure of the vegetation". Lockhart et al. (1999) state that, "C. anacardioides, seedlings to medium-sized trees have become established in disturbed sites as well as undisturbed natural areas. Birds disperse the seeds and contribute to a rapidly expanding wild population that includes isolated islands." The authors further state that, "The presence of C. anacardioides tends to be associated with an increase of species richness in mangroves and may cause a reduction of species richness in tropical hammock communities."

Langeland (2003) observes that carrotwood is especially a problem in low moist areas. It is salt tolerant , and has become a pest to mangrove ecosystems (Coile, 1997). Mangrove habitats are recognized as extremely important coastal habitats and are already heavily impacted by coastal development and invasion by other exotic plants. Lockhart (1999) states that, "Because mangroves provide critical habitat for wading and diving birds, (some of which are designated Species of Special Concern), and serve as nursery grounds for crabs, other crustaceans, invertebrates and commercial and recreational fish; the impacts of C. anacardioides establishment are serious and far-reaching. Coastal hammocks and mangroves are continually losing ground to development and are also impacted by natural forces such as tropical storms and hurricanes. Alteration of species composition and competition by invasive exotic species increases stress to the remaining hammocks. Because C. anacardioides is a popular, fast-growing landscape tree that is widely planted and very adaptable, the impacts to mangroves and other habitats are expected to increase. C. anacardioides has also been found growing among other aggressive, invasive exotic trees." Langeland (2003) states that, "C. anacardioides freely seeds from plantings (Menninger, 1964). Consumption by fish crows is particularly important because seeds are carried from inland feeding sites to coastal islands where they are deposited and germinate (Lockhart et al. 1999)." The author adds a variety of habitats that C. anacardioides invades not previously listed: spoil islands, marshes, tropical hammocks, pinelands, and mangrove and cypress swamps .

Biology

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Reproduction

Lockhart (1999) states that, "C. anacardioides is a prolific seed producer, and the brightly colored fruits are very attractive to birds which disperse it widely. Bird dispersal explains isolated island populations and seedlings under trees and telephone poles . Seedlings have also been found along estuary rack lines . Clumps of seedlings suggest dispersal by small mammals. In its native range , C. anacardioides is pollinated by bees, which are the likely pollinators in Florida."

According to Lockhart (1999), "in Florida, flowering occurs in the winter, from January to March, and the fruit starts to ripen in May."

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Culture: Space 12-15' apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 6.1 • Maximum pH: 8.5

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade.

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 9b, 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Radlk. Publication : Sitzungsber. Math.-Phys. Cl. K?nigl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. M?nchen ix. (1879) 585

Basionym : Sapindaceae Cupania anacardioides A.Rich.

Basionym author: (A.Rich.)

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Cupaniopsis

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 1 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. anacardioides (Brush Deal)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Nianhe Xia & Paul A. Gadek "Sapindaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 1, 6. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Cupaniopsis". in Flora of Pakistan . Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Mean = -81.490 meters (-267.356 feet), Standard Deviation = 505.920 based on 136 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012