Phyllanthus polygonoides |
Phyllanthus |
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knotweed leafflower, knotweed leaflower, smartweed leaf-flower |
leafflower |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, with woody caudex, usually monoecious, rarely dioecious, 1–5 dm; branching not phyllanthoid. | Herbs, shrubs, or trees, annual or perennial, terrestrial (P. fluitans floating aquatic), usually monoecious, sometimes dioecious, glabrous or hairy, hairs simple [branched]; branching phyllanthoid or not. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | terete, not winged, glabrous. |
erect to prostrate. |
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Leaves | spiral, all well developed; stipules auriculate, pink or red to medium brown, with hyaline margins; blade narrowly oblong to obovate, 5–10 × 1.5–5 mm, base obtuse, apex acute to mucronulate, both surfaces glabrous or scabridulous. |
persistent or deciduous, alternate, simple, all well developed, scalelike on main stems and well developed on ultimate branchlets, or rarely all scalelike; stipules persistent; blade margins entire. |
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Inflorescences | cymules or flowers solitary, unisexual or bisexual, with 1(–2) pistillate flowers and/or 1–3 staminate flowers. |
unisexual or bisexual, cymules or flowers solitary. |
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Pedicels | staminate 1.5–3.5 mm, pistillate spreading in fruit, 2.5–7 mm. |
present, pistillate sometimes elongating in fruit. |
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Staminate flowers | sepals (5–)6, greenish yellow, sometimes suffused with red, with white margins, flat, 0.7–1.3 mm; nectary extrastaminal, 6 glands; stamens 3, filaments connate 2/3 length. |
sepals 4–6, connate basally; petals 0; nectary extrastaminal, 4–6 glands (intrastaminal, annular, 4-lobed in P. warnockii); stamens 2–5[–15]; filaments distinct or partially to completely connate; connectives not extending beyond anthers; pistillode absent. |
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Pistillate flowers | sepals (5–)6, green with white margins, flat, 1.5–2.5 mm, pinnately veined; nectary annular, 6-lobed. |
sepals persistent, (4–)5–6, connate basally; petals 0; nectary annular to cupular, entire or lobed, or distinct glands [absent]; pistil 3(–4)-carpellate; styles 3(–4), distinct or connate to 1/2 length, 2-fid [rarely unbranched]. |
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Fruits | capsules or drupes. |
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Capsules | 2.7–3.2 mm diam., smooth. |
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Seeds | uniformly brown, (1.1–)1.2–1.4(–1.5) mm, irregularly verrucose. |
2 per locule, rounded-trigonous; seed coat dry, verrucose, papillate, ribbed, or smooth; caruncle absent. |
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x | = 8, 9, 13. |
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2n | = 16. |
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Phyllanthus polygonoides |
Phyllanthus |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Grasslands, grass-shrublands, glades, especially calcareous soils. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 700–2000 m. (2300–6600 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AR; AZ; LA; MO; NM; OK; TX; n Mexico; c Mexico
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North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Asia; Africa; Indian Ocean Islands; Pacific Islands; Australia; primarily tropical and subtropical regions [Introduced in Bermuda, Atlantic Islands, (Macaronesia)] |
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Discussion | Phyllanthus polygonoides is closely related to P. liebmannianus. Although in the flora area they are allopatric and easily distinguished by the characters used in the key, the differences other than habit are all quantitative, and where the species overlap in parts of northeastern Mexico they can be difficult to separate. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 800–850 (16 in the flora). Phyllanthus is by far the largest genus in Phyllanthaceae and shows tremendous diversity in habit, from trees to small annual herbs, including a floating aquatic herb. Most species exhibit phyllanthoid branching (G. L. Webster 1956–1958), with well-developed leaves and flowers produced only on the ultimate branchlets, which in woody species are deciduous, and scalelike leaves on all other stems (referred to as main stems in this treatment; see family discussion for more details). Phylogenetic studies using DNA sequence data suggest that phyllanthoid branching evolved once and has been lost repeatedly, including within the clades containing P. caroliniensis and P. warnockii (H. Kathriarachchi et al. 2006). These studies also indicated that Phyllanthus is paraphyletic and that few of the subgenera and sections used by Webster (1956–1958, 1967) are monophyletic (K. Wurdack et al. 2004; Kathriarachchi et al. 2005, 2006; P. Hoffmann et al. 2006). However, it is premature to revise the classification of the genus (Kathriarachchi et al. 2006) and the sequence of species used here generally follows the classification by Webster (1956–1958, 1967, 1970). Exceptions are P. warnockii, which he treated as the sole member of Reverchonia but molecular phylogenetic studies show to be embedded in Phyllanthus (Kathriarachchi et al. 2006), and P. fluitans, which he did not treat; the latter species appears to be closely related to P. caroliniensis (Kathriarachchi et al. 2006). A number of Phyllanthus species are of economic importance. Some cladode-producing species, especially P. angustifolius and P. epiphyllanthus Linnaeus, are grown as ornamental shrubs in tropical and subtropical areas (and in hothouses elsewhere); the former species has become sparingly naturalized in south Florida. Otaheite (or Tahitian) gooseberry tree, P. acidus, is grown throughout the tropics for its tart drupes; it has naturalized in south Florida. The floating aquatic herb P. fluitans (floating spurge or red root floater), is increasingly popular for use in tropical fish aquaria. Both P. amarus and P. urinaria have become weeds throughout tropical and subtropical areas, including the southeastern United States, and the American P. caroliniensis has become a weed in southeast Asia. Several annual species, notably P. niruri and P. urinaria, are widely used in folk medicine to treat a variety of ailments, especially urinary problems, and are now the subject of intense pharmacological research. In Phyllanthus, taxa that are not consistently distinct morphologically but are geographically disjunct are recognized as subspecies (for example, P. caroliniensis subspp. caroliniensis and saxicola). Those that intergrade morphologically and geographically, as in P. abnormis, are treated as varieties. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 337. | FNA vol. 12, p. 335. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Phyllanthaceae > Phyllanthus | Phyllanthaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Reverchonia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall ex Sprengel: Syst. Veg. 3: 23. (1826) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 981. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 422. (1754) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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