珠子木 zhu zi mu

Phyllanthus anthopotamicus Handel-Mazzetti, Symb. Sin. 7(2): 223. 1931.

Erect shrubs ca. 3 m tall, monoecious; stem gray-brown; branches usually apically clustered, angular, up to 20 cm, gray-green, pubescent when young, glabrescent. Stipules lanceolate 2-4 mm, chestnut, membranous, usually caducous; petiole 2-5 mm, pubescent; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, to broadly ovate, usually smaller, 1-3 × 0.5-1.5 cm, and denser on flowering or fruiting branches, but larger, 5-13 × 3-6 cm, and more distant on sterile shoots, papery to leathery, abaxially glaucous, adaxially green, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, margins slightly revolute, apex acuminate, acute, or obtuse; lateral veins in 6-8 pairs, flattened adaxially, elevated abaxially. Inflorescences 2-4-flowered, with several imbricate bracteoles at base; bracteoles ovate, ca. 1.5 mm. Male flowers: pedicel 1-2 mm; sepals 5, elliptic-lanceolate, 3-4 × ca. 1.5 mm, slightly concave inside, margins membranous, apex caudate-acuminate, midrib keeled abaxially; disk segments 5, ca. 1 mm; stamens 3, ca. 1.2 mm; filament column ca. 0.6 mm; anthers ellipsoid, ca. 0.3 mm, connectives subulate, ca. 0.3 mm. Female flowers: sepals 6, shaped as in male, persistent in fruit; disk segments 6, ca. 0.5 mm; ovary ovoid, 3-locular; styles 3, shallowly bifid. Capsules globose, 0.5-0.8 cm in diam., brown, endocarp tawny. Seed trigonous-ovoid, ca. 3 × 1.5 mm, tawny. Fl. May-Sep, fr. Sep-Dec.

● Montane sparse forests or scrub; 800-1300 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan.