Phyllanthus microcladus Müll.Arg.

Phyllanthaceae

Mueller, J. von (Aargau) (1865), Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde 34: 71. Type: "Nova Hollandia" [see under varieties].

Shrub to 2 m tall, stems soon becoming hairless.

Leaves simple, alternate, often in clusters of 2-5 on short lateral shoots, lateral branches subtended by scale leaves, c. 2 mm long. Stipules 2, free, ovate, 0.6-1.5 mm long, red-brown. Petiole c. 1 mm long. Leaf blades obovate to oblanceolate or cuneate, (0.4-) 2-9 (-22) mm long, (0.2-) 2-5 (-11) mm wide, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire and thickened but not rolled under, apex rounded to subacute. Lateral veins about 3-5 pairs. Both surfaces hairless, lower surface ± glaucous, midrib prominent.

Inflorescence axillary, flowers solitary or in few flowered clusters or fascicles. Flowers unisexual and plants monoecious or rarely dioecious, actinomorphic, 3-merous, up to 4 mm diameter. Male pedicels 5-10 mm long; female pedicels 10-20 mm long. Tepals 6 in 2 whorls and usually yellowish or green. Male flowers: tepals c. 1.5 mm long, 6 gland-like structures alternating with the tepals, with 3 stamens, free; female flowers: tepals c. 2 mm long, glandular disk present (6 lobed), with a 3-locular superior ovary, styles 3 and each deeply bifid.

Fruit a capsule, depressed-globose, 2.3-3 mm long, reddish or green or turning brown, drooping from branch on slender stalks, hairless. Calyx persistent at base, style persistent at apex. Seeds usually 6, brownish or black; 1-2 mm long.

Seed germination time 16 days. Cotyledons about 5-6 x 4 mm. First pair of leaves stipulate, stipules broadly triangular. At the tenth leaf stage: stem clothed in very short, fleshy multi-headed hairs arranged in parallel lines. Stipules triangular, about 1 mm long. Leaf blade underside much paler than the upper surface.

Occurs in scattered locations in NEQ and CEQ, and southwards as far as north-eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range in NEQ from near sea level to 450 m. Usually grows in rocky places along creeks and river banks, often as a rheophyte on streams flowing through rain forest or monsoon forest.

This profile information and associated coding has been adapted from Harden et al. (2014), Airy Shaw (1980a) and Webster (2014).

Phyllanthus microcladus Müll.Arg. var. microcladus, Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde 34: 73 (1865). Diasperus microcladus (Müll.Arg.) Kuntze, Revisio Generum Plantarum 2: 600 (1891). Sauropus albiflorus subsp. microcladus (Müll.Arg.) Airy Shaw, Kew Bulletin 35(3): 672, (1980). Phyllanthus microcladus var. puberulus Müll.Arg., Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde 34: 71. (1865). Type: "In Nova Hollandia orientali ad Clarence River (Beckler! specim. a cl. Ferd.Muell. missum)." Phyllanthus microcladus var. microphyllus Müll.Arg., Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde 34: 73, (1865). Type: "In Nova Hollandia orientali ad Moreton-Bay. (Ferd. Müll.! in hb. DC.)." Phyllanthus pusillifolius S.Moore, A contribution to the Flora of Australia. Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany 45: 216 (1920). Type: "Queensland, Broad Sound; R. Brown, dist. no. 3601".