Family: Phyllanthaceae
Sauropus
Citation:
Blume, Fl. Ned. Ind. Bijdr. 595 (1826).
Derivation: Presumably from Greek sauros, lizard; pous, a foot.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Shrubs (sometimes scrambling) or shrublets or herbs, sometimes from a woody base; leaves alternate, very shortly petiolate, varied in size and shape, membranous or papery, penninerved (rarely 3-nerved); stipules mostly small, triangular-subulate; monoecious or apparently dioecious.
Flowers mostly fasciculate, axillary or sometimes borne on special densely bracteate short or long spurs simulating racemose inflorescences; male flower calyx segments 3 plus 3, free and erect or spreading or variously connate when either forming a tube or frequently flattened into an entire or acutely 6-12-lobed disc, the distal half of each segment being sharply inflexed so that the 6 apices point inwards and fit closely around the stamens; petals none; stamens 3, opposite the outer segments; the filaments rarely free, usually connate into a short column; anthers free or connate; female flower calyx segments 3 plus 3 in 2 rows, usually turbinately connate below; disc none; ovary 3-celled, sometimes apically truncate or excavated; each cell 2-ovulate; styles either short broad and entire or 2-fid or deeply 2-fid when linear, rarely connate into a column.
Capsule depressed-globose or ovoid, inconspicuously lobed, more or less crustaceous, occasionally fleshy and berry-like; seeds 6, trigonous, often dorsally wrinkled or rugose, acarunculate; cotyledons broad.
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Distribution:
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(Airy Shaw (1980) Kew Bull. 35:669-686.) Of about 25 species 19 are in Australia and 18 endemics.
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Biology:
No text
Taxonomic notes:
The 3 species in South Australia were treated by J. Black (1948), Fl. S. Aust. p. 510, as Phyllanthus sect. Synostemon and by Airy Shaw in Jessop (1981), Flora of central Australia, as Synostemon.
Key to Species:
Author:
Not yet available
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