1465

 

Phyllanthus multiflorus Poir

Synonym	:	Menarda pulchella Baill.
Family	:	Phyllanthaceae
Local name	:	English - Phyllanthus
Flowering and fruiting period	:	All year around
Distribution	:	Widely spread
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	cultivated
Uses	:	Medium growing hedges, borders, and in containers on patio settings. Can be left to cascade or clipped to tight shapes.
Key botanical characters:  An erect much-branched shrub; stems pubescent, at length nearly glabrous; flowering branchlets sometimes produced in fascicles, but more often solitary, up to 2 1/2 in. long, densely crisped-pubescent; leaves oblong or elliptic, mostly rounded at both ends, 1/2–1 1/4 in. long, 3 1/2–7 lin. broad, somewhat membranous, glabrous or crisped-pubescent; lateral nerves 7–9 on each side; petiole pubescent; stipules lanceolate, acute; flowers monœcious, axillary, one female and two or three males in each fascicle; pedicel slender, up to 2 lin. long, slightly pubescent or glabrous; male flowers: sepals 5, ovate-elliptic, 1-nerved, about 3/4 lin. long; disc-glands 5, obovate, flattened, smooth; stamens 5; two or three of the filaments partially connate, the others free and shorter; anthers dehiscing at the side, cells cohering at their tips, diverging at the base; female flowers: sepals as in the male; disc of separate glands similar to those of the male; ovary depressed-globose, glabrous; styles very short, erect, and crowded; fruit fleshy or coriaceous, 8–16-seeded, about 3 lin. in diam., seeds irregularly trigonous, punctulate. null.