Photo of a woody shoot and clusters of globose, greenish fruits.

Phyllanthus emblica produces edible fruits. They are greenish, about the size of ping-pong balls & have firm, crisp flesh around a single large seed. Dried fruits are available in large Asian groceries in my area. 📷: Vijay Anand Ismavel CCBYNC2. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

More #Phyllanthaceae strangeness! Many species of Phyllanthus are hyperaccumulators of nickel (meaning they store Ni in their tissues at concentrations very much greater than those of the surrounding soils).

Photo of leafy shoots with large, ovate leaves. The shoots do not resemble pinnately compound leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Phyllanthus unifoliatus doesn’t have the Phyllanthus branching. The name suggests that this species, unlike others, is unifoliolate, but of course, all Phyllanthus have simple, not compound, leaves. This one is from New Caledonia. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a floating plant with shoots producing rounded leaves.

Here’s Phyllanthus fluitans, a floating aquatic species from southern Mexico and northern South America. I expected this to be a pantropical aquatic weed, but I see it’s escaped only in Florida (of course 😒). 📷: Eric Hunt CCBYNCND2 #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a flattened, paddle-shaped, green stem with marginal pink flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Phyllanthoid branching evolved only once but has been lost several times. Some species have kept the branching but ditched the leaves. Phyllanthus angustifolius of the Antilles has cladodes (flattened, photosynthetic branches). #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a small plant with an upright, primary axis and many secondary branches and tertiary branches that look like bipinnately compound leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

If you weren’t paying attention, you might mistake Phyllanthus myriophyllus, of Haiti, for a plant with bipinnate compound leaves, something like a young Delonix regia (Fabaceae). Remember, those are branches, not compound leaves. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a small plant with an upright, primary axis and many lateral branches that look like pinnately compound leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Phyllanthoid branching looks so much like pinnately compound leaves that even botanists can’t help but notice. Case in point: This is Phyllanthus juglandifolius. As the name suggests, the branches look like the leaves of walnut (Juglans spp.). #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo with POV looking down onto a shoot that has spirally arranged branches that look like pinnately compound leaves. Smaller, emerging branches look like emerging, expanding leaves.

Phyllanthus has what is called “phyllanthoid branching”: Orthotropic (erect) shoots with spirally arranged leaves & plagiotropic (horizontal) branches with distichous leaves. Guam’s P. saffordii shows the dimorphism. 📷: Lauren Gutierrez CCBYND2. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a small, herbaceous plant with short, indeterminate branches bearing small, elliptical leaves. The branches look like pinnately compound leaves. Small, green fruits dangle in the leaf axils, so we know these are leaves, not leaflets. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

I spend too much time pulling this annual weed from my garden in autumn: It’s Phyllanthus urinaria. At 1st glance, it looks like a single stem with pinnately compound leaves. Look again. The axillary flowers & fruits prove these “leaves” are branches. #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of the unisexual flowers. These have six greenish white petals and a gynoecium of three fused carpels and three bifurcate stigmas.

Phyllanthus was once treated as yet another odd Euphorbiaceae. The unisexual flower & 3-part stigma fit, but they’re plesiomorphic*. We now place it in its own family, not esp. close to Euphorbiaceae. 📷: P. calycinus Philip Bouchard CCBYNCND2 #Phyllanthaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
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Phyllanthus warnockii (syn Reverchonia warnockii)
The Sand Reverchonia is endemic to quartz sand Dunes found in the Southwestern US.
I found these at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Utah

#phyllanthuswarnockii #phyllanthaceae #utahflora ##utahbotany #Utahnativeplants #plantsofutah #desertflora