Phyllanthus tenellus
Phyllanthus polygonoides
Mascarene Island leaf-flower
knotweed leafflower, knotweed leaflower, smartweed leaf-flower
main stems terete, not winged, glabrous or scabridulous; ultimate branchlets subterete, not winged, glabrous or scabridulous.
terete, not winged, glabrous.
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.
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.
cymules or flowers solitary, proximal bisexual with 1–2 pistillate flowers and 2–3 staminate flowers, distal with 1 pistillate flower.
cymules or flowers solitary, unisexual or bisexual, with 1(–2) pistillate flowers and/or 1–3 staminate flowers.
staminate 0.5–1.5 mm, pistillate flexuous, capillary, and pendent in fruit, (2.5–)3–8 mm.
staminate 1.5–3.5 mm, pistillate spreading in fruit, 2.5–7 mm.
sepals 5, white except green midrib, flat, 0.4–0.7 mm;
nectary extrastaminal, 5 glands;
stamens 5, filaments distinct.
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 5, white except green midrib, flat, 0.6–0.8 mm, 1-veined;
nectary annular, unlobed.
sepals (5–)6, green with white margins, flat, 1.5–2.5 mm, pinnately veined;
nectary annular, 6-lobed.
1.7–1.9 mm diam., smooth.
2.7–3.2 mm diam., smooth.
uniformly brown, 0.8–0.9 mm, evenly papillate.
uniformly brown, (1.1–)1.2–1.4(–1.5) mm, irregularly verrucose.
= 26.
= 16.
Phyllanthus tenellus
Phyllanthus polygonoides
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.)
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.)
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