Phyllanthus

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Euphorbiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Phyllanthus

  • Description

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    Genus Description - Monoecious herbs, shrubs, or small trees, glabrous, or seldom with simple hairs, not producing milky latex; stems sometimes flattened into a photosynthetic phylloclade. Leaves simple, alternate and entire or reduced to scales; petioles short; stipules minute, persistent or deciduous; Flowers solitary in leaf axils, or in bisexual, axillary cymes or terminal thyrses, or cauliflorous; calyx of 4-6 sepals; corolla lacking, nectary disk extrastaminal, annular or lobed. Staminate flowers long-pediceled (usually longer than those of pistillate flowers); stamens (2-)6, the filaments free or connate to various degrees; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers short-pediceled; ovary trilobed, with 3(—12) carpels, these with 2 ovules each, the styles free or connate, with simple or bifid branches. Fruit usually 3-lobed or depressed-globose, thin-walled capsule with explosive dehiscence, or a drupe; each locule 2-valved; seeds 2 per locule, trigonous.

    Distribution and Ecology - A tropical genus of about 650 species.