EUPTELEACEAE

family of dicotyledonous flowering plants with one genus, Euptelea, and two species of trees or large shrubs. The group is characterized by alternately arranged, simple, deciduous, marginally toothed leaves; bisexual flowers with 6 to 18 pistils (female organs) on short stalks and numerous stamens (male, pollen-producing structures) but no sepals or petals; and fruits consisting of a cluster of dry, winged, single-seeded nuts (samaras) with a notch in one side. The two species, E. polyandra, native to Japan, and E. pleiosperma, native to southwestern China and Assam, are sometimes grown as ornamentals mainly for their foliage, which is red when young and green at maturity. In the autumn the leaves turn a bright red or yellow colour. Eupteleaceae is one of the five families in the order Hamamelidales. Its taxonomic position is considered to be nearest the order Trochodendrales.