''Talisia'' is a genus of 52 species of flowering plants in the family

Sapindaceae The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1858 accepted species. Examples include horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee. The Sapindaceae occur in tempera ...

, native to tropical regions of the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

. The genus is closely related to ''

Melicoccus ''Melicoccus'' is a genus of ten species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of northern and western South America. They are evergreen trees growing to tall, with alternate pinnate leaf, leaves with 4 or 6 ...

'', with some species sometimes included in that genus. The species are evergreen trees and

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s growing to 20 m tall, with pinnate

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

. The flowers are individually inconspicuous, produced in

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s. The fruit is an oval

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

2–4 cm long containing one or two seeds surrounded by a translucent crisp, juicy layer of fruit pulp and a thin orange or brown skin; in several species the fruit pulp is edible. ;Selected species

References

Flora of Bolivia checklist: ''Talisia''Field Museum: ''Talisia'' herbarium index
* Sapindaceae {{Sapindales-stub