Citation: Adr. Juss., Euphorb. Gen. 35 (1824).

Derivation: In honour of Jean-Jacques-Antoine Ampère, French historian, 1800-1864.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Monoecious or dioecious perennials; base often woody; stems slender, usually rigid, erect or procumbent, sometimes almost leafless; leaves when present alternate, either entire with closely revolute margins, or flat and then sometimes toothed; stipules small.

Flowers small, in axillary sessile clusters, surrounded by scarious bracts; petals absent; males usually numerous; perianth campanulate, with 3-5 lobes; stamens twice as many as the perianth-lobes or fewer, filaments free or shortly united at the base, without any rudimentary ovary, occasionally surrounded by as many small glands as perianth-lobes; anthers mostly 2-celled, cells from globular to parallel, dehiscent longitudinally in 2 valves; the connective usually tipped with a small gland; female perianth deeply divided into 5 rarely 4 lobes, persistent and scarcely enlarged under the fruit; ovary 3-celled, with 1 ovule in each cell; styles 3, more or less 2-fid, free.

Capsule ovoid, crowned by a ring of 6 erect tooth-like appendages each on the back of one of the valves, separating into 3 2-valved fruitlets; seeds 3, ovoid-oblong, smooth, carunculate terminally; embryo linear; cotyledons longer and broader than the radicle.

Distribution:  6 species endemic to Australia.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available