Koelreuteria , also known as chinese lantern tree, is a genus of three species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to southern and eastern Asia, as well as the island of Fiji. Many fossil species are also known, suggesting that this genus had a wider range in the past.
They are medium-sized deciduous trees growing to tall, with spirally arranged pinnate or bipinnate leaves. The flowers are small and yellow, produced in large branched panicles long. The fruit is a three-lobed inflated papery capsule 3âÂÂ6 cm long, containing several hard nut-like seeds 5âÂÂ10 mm diameter.
The first Koelreuteria taxonomy was published by Erik Laxmann in 1772. The type species is Koelreuteria paniculata Laxm.
Fossil remains of Koelreuteria are known from the Early Eocene of North America and the Pliocene of Europe, suggesting that they originally had a circumboreal distribution. Climactic changes led to their extirpation from North America after the Eocene and in Europe after the Neogene, leaving only the East Asian species. K. elegans arrived to Fiji and Taiwan via long-distance dispersal.
The genus has three accepted species:
The following fossil species are also known:
The genus was named after Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter (1733-1806), from Karlsruhe, Germany, by Erich Laxmann.
Koelreuteria are commonly used as focal points in landscape design in regions where they thrive.
In some areas, notably parts of eastern North America, they have become invasive species.