In message , P van
Rijckevorsel writes
I see somebody ran a more robust-looking analysis on Sapindaceae.
This rather confirms what was said here previously
(and thus contradicts the literature):
- Xanthoceras is sister to the rest,
- Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae together are sister to the rest.

So almost any position whatsoever can be defended, but:
- if Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae are families then so is Xanthoceras
(likely by itself, but given the present level of analysis, it may have
unknown allies)
- although the whole can be dumped into one big family Sapindaceae, which
will be a holophyletic unit, it is hardly a necessity.
PvR


This would be Harrington et al, Systematic Botany 30(2): 366-382 (2005)?
I see from the abstract that they propose merging Aceraceae and
Hippocastanaceae into a single subfamily.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley