| Synonyms: |
Phyllanthus antunesii Pax |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | Occasional |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: |
A much branched monoecious annual or perennial herb or subshrub up to 60 cm tall. Lead shoots slightly rough. Lateral shoots 2-7 cm long, densely scabrid-papillose. Scale leaves 1 mm long, subulate. Foliage leaves distichous; petioles 0.5-0.75 mm long; stipules 1.5-2 mm long, linear-lanceolate; leaf blade 3-14 x 2-6 mm, elliptic, obtuse or subacute at apex and rounded-cuneate to slightly asymmetric at base, margins slightly thickened. Male flowers in few flowered cymules in the axils of the loweest half to three quarters of the lead shoot; pedicels 0.5 mm long; sepals 5, 1.5 x 1 mm, obovate-spathulate to rounded, white with a faint midrib; stamens 3, filaments united into a column 1-1.5 mm high. Female flowers solitary in the axils of the upper half to quarter of the lead shoot; pedicels 1 mm long extending to 2-3 mm in fruit and expanded apically; sepals 5, 2 x 1 mm, enlarging to 4 x 2-3 mm in fruit, ovate or elliptic, pale green with a white border; ovary stipitate, 6-lobed, smooth; styles 3, 0.6 mm long, ± free, divergent, bifid, the stigmas recurved. Fruit 2.5 x 4 mm, depressed-globose, ± smooth, enclosed by the persistent sepals. Seeds 1.8-1.9 x 1.5 x 1.4 mm, segmentiform, dark brown and with c. 17 longitudinal ridges on the dorsal facet and c. 12-14 concentric ridges on each ventral facet. |
| Type location: |
Zambia, Kitwe |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | microdendron: small tree, referring to small tree-like habit; asper: rough or harsh to the touch. |
| Habitat: | In miombo woodland and Guibourtia, Baikiaeawoodland on Kalahari Sand |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 1000 - 1250 m |
| Flowering time: | Feb - May(-Jun) |
| Worldwide distribution: | |
| FZ divisions: | B,W |
| Zambian distribution (Provinces): | Cb,W |
| Growth form(s): | Shrub under 2 m. |
| Endemic status: | Endemic |
| Red data list status: | Lower Risk - least concern |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Radcliffe-Smith, A. (1996). Euphorbiaceae Flora Zambesiaca 9(4) Page 83. |