Phyllanthus tenellus
Phyllanthus evanescens
Mascarene Island leaf-flower
birdseed leafflower
main stems terete, not winged, glabrous or scabridulous; ultimate branchlets subterete, not winged, glabrous or scabridulous.
proximally terete, distally compressed, winged, scabridulous.
on main stems spiral, scalelike;
stipules not auriculate, reddish brown.;
leaves on ultimate branchlets distichous, well developed;
stipules not auriculate, pale green or pink with paler margins;
blade elliptic to obovate, 6–25 × 4–11 mm, base acute to rounded, apex acute to obtuse, both surfaces glabrous.
distichous, all well developed;
stipules auriculate, pale green with pale brown margins;
blade elliptic or oblong, 8–20 × 2.5–10 mm, base obtuse to rounded, apex acute to obtuse, both surfaces glabrous.
cymules or flowers solitary, proximal bisexual with 1–2 pistillate flowers and 2–3 staminate flowers, distal with 1 pistillate flower.
cymules, bisexual, with 1–2(–3) pistillate flowers and 1–3 staminate flowers.
staminate 0.5–1.5 mm, pistillate flexuous, capillary, and pendent in fruit, (2.5–)3–8 mm.
staminate 0.5–0.8 mm, pistillate sharply reflexed in fruit, (1–)1.4–1.8(–2.2) mm.
sepals 5, white except green midrib, flat, 0.4–0.7 mm;
nectary extrastaminal, 5 glands;
stamens 5, filaments distinct.
sepals 5–6, pale brownish green with narrow white margins, flat, 0.5–0.7 mm;
nectary extrastaminal, 5–6 glands;
stamens 3, filaments connate basally to most of length.
sepals 5, white except green midrib, flat, 0.6–0.8 mm, 1-veined;
nectary annular, unlobed.
sepals (5–)6, green (sometimes tinged pink) with narrow white margins, flat, 0.7–1.2 mm, 1-veined;
nectary annular, unlobed.
1.7–1.9 mm diam., smooth.
2.8–3.2 mm diam., smooth.
uniformly brown, 0.8–0.9 mm, evenly papillate.
uniformly brown, 1.3–1.5 mm, irregularly verrucose.
= 26.
Phyllanthus tenellus
Phyllanthus evanescens
Phyllanthus tenellus is easily recognized by its long, capillary pistillate pedicels that are flexuous and pendent in fruit; it is native to the Mascarene Islands and perhaps to eastern Africa, other western Indian Ocean Islands, and the Arabian Peninsula, and is widely naturalized in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. It appears to have been introduced into Florida in the 1920s and is continuing to spread. Phyllanthus tenellus has been reported from Arkansas (E. Sundell et al. 1999) and California as a nursery weed (G. F. Hrusa, pers. comm.), and from Oklahoma in flower beds (B. W. Hoagland, pers. comm.), and may be expected to become naturalized in those states.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Plants from the United States and northeastern Mexico generally have been called Phyllanthus pudens and from the rest of Mexico and Central America P. evanescens. Characters used to distinguish these species (fruiting pedicel length and seed size) overlap broadly and recent authors treat them as synonyms (G. L. Webster 2001; V. W. Steinmann 2007). A report of P. evanescens (as P. pudens) from Arkansas (E. Sundell et al. 1999) is based on introduced plants in a nursery; it does not appear to have become established there. The species is introduced in Alabama, first collected there in 2012.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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