See text Dodonaea, commonly known as hop-bushes,[2][3] is a genus of about 70 species of flowering plants in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae.

The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa, the Americas, southern Asia and Australasia, but 59 species are endemic to Australia.

[4][5] Plants in the genus Dodonaea are shrubs or small trees and often have sticky foliage, with simple or pinnate leaves arranged alternately along the stems.

The flowers are male, female or bisexual and are borne in leaf axils or on the ends of branchlets and lack petals.

Plants in the genus Dodonaea are shrubs or small trees that typically grow to a height of 0.1–4 m (3.9 in – 13 ft 1.5 in) and are dioecious, monoecious or polygamous and often have sticky foliage.

Dodonaea and Distichostemon share similar morphological characteristics which include plants having regular flowers without petals and an intrastaminal disc.

The most recent molecular study of phylogenetic relationships within the genus revealed some discrepancy with the previously stated hypotheses of morphological evolution within Dodonaea which classified taxa by the combination of leaf, capsule and seed characters.

[8] Seeds of D. viscosa have very small funicular aril, and are harvested by Pheidole ants and deposited in middens outside the nest after the elaiosome has been consumed.