Home | > | List of families | > | Phyllanthaceae | > | Phyllanthus | > | engleri |
Synonyms: | |
Common names: | Spurred phyllanthus (English) Spurred potato-bush (English) |
Frequency: | |
Status: | Native |
Description: |
Glabrous, dioecious, shrub or small tree to 8 m. Bark grey, fissured. Leafy branchlets up to 30 cm, borne on stout 2-3 cm long spur-branchlets these bearing scale leaves, which harden into thick, stout spines. Foliage leaves usually suborbicular, dull to yellowish green above, ± glaucous beneath; apex rounded or obtuse; stipules 1-4 mm, lancolate, caducous. Flowers in fascicles. Male flowers: sepals (4-)5, strongly imbricate, ovate; disk glands 5; stamens free. Female flowers not known. Fruit subglobose, 1.5-2 × 2-2.5 cm, 3-lobed, yellowish-green, Seeds up to 6, c. 1 cm long. |
Notes: | |
Derivation of specific name: | engleri: named after Dr Prof Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (1844-1930), German Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Berlin, who initiated extensive botanical exploration in Africa. |
Habitat: | In hot, dry, deciduous woodland; also in Kalahari Sand vleis and on alluvial flats, often on termitaria. |
Altitude range: (metres) | Up to 1250 m |
Flowering time: | |
Worldwide distribution: | Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique |
Zimbabwe distribution: | N |
Growth form(s): | |
Endemic status: | |
Red data list status: | |
Insects associated with this species: | |
Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
Images last updated: | Sunday 15 September 2013 |
Literature: |
Burrows, J.E., Burrows, S.M., Lötter, M.C. & Schmidt, E. (2018). Trees and Shrubs Mozambique Publishing Print Matters (Pty), Cape Town. Page 415. (Includes a picture). Coates Palgrave, K. (revised and updated by Meg Coates Palgrave) (2002). Trees of Southern Africa 3rd edition. Struik, South Africa Page 473. (Includes a picture). Drummond, R.B. (1975). A list of trees, shrubs and woody climbers indigenous or naturalised in Rhodesia. Kirkia 10(1) Page 251. Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 42. Radcliffe-Smith, A. (1996). Euphorbiaceae Flora Zambesiaca 9(4) Page 47. |
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