Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Phyllanthus gunnii Hook.f.


Herb (herbaceous or woody, under 1 m tall)
Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
Family

Hooker, J.D. (1847) London Journal of Botany 6: 284. Type: Hab. Circular Head and George Town; Gunn.

Stem

Glabrous shrub up to 2 m tall.

Leaves

Leaf petiole ca. 1 mm long. Leaf blades about 0.8-2 x 0.5-1.0 cm, obovate-oblong, apex often obtuse and with small mucro. Leaves distichously arranged on the twigs. Leaves thin and fragile, glaucous on the underside. Venation not obvious, but the lateral veins form loops well inside the blade margin. Stipules about 1-2 mm long, acuminate at the apex, persistent.

Flowers

Male flowers: Six glands alternating with the tepals. Staminal filaments forked with one anther locule on each branch. Pollen cream-yellow. Female flowers: Ovary surrounded at the base by a thin, skirt-like 6-lobed disk. Styles 3, forked near the apices. Ovules 2 per locule.

Fruit

Capsules small, about 3-4 mm diam. with the calyx persistent at the base. Pedicel slender, about 4-6 mm long. Styles persistent at the apex. Seed about 1.2-1.5 mm long.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as Victoria and Tasmania. Altitudinal range from 40 to 1000 m. Grows in or on the margins of rain forest and semi evergreen vine forest.

Synonyms

Phyllanthus gasstroemii Mull.Arg.Linnaea 32: 17 (1963). Type: "In Nova Hollandia ad Botany-Bay. (Gasstroem in hb. holm.!)"

RFK Code
3559
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