Variable spreading or erect shrub, sometimes a small tree to several metres tall. Leaves simple, linear to obovate, 1-15 cm long, 1-40 mm wide, margins entire to irregularly wavy or toothed. Flowers in terminal clusters. Sepals 3 or 4; spring. Ovary hairy or not. Fruit capsule 3-4-winged.
The subsp. cuneata (Sm.) J. West has leaves with pronounced truncate tips and wedge-shaped attenuation to the base. Syn. D. cuneata Sm.
Pantropical, extending to S Africa and the Pacific.
Other species with simple leaves that are occasionally cultivated include: D. triquetra Wendl., Large-leaf Hop Bush, which has thinnish leaves and a capsule with wings much longer than wide; and D. humifusa Miq. from WA, a prostrate shrub with short leaves.
Source: (2002). Sapindaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
, Purple Hop Bush, grows to about 3 m tall and has deep purplish red leaves and fruit capsules, especially in late summer to early spring. Seed collected in the early 1890s by Mrs Thomas Wilkins from plants on the banks of the Wairau River, Marlborough, on the s Island of New Zealand. Plants grown in her garden from this seed were later introduced to the trade by a Christchurch nurseryman.