Phyllanthus brassii
Phyllanthus brassii, commonly known as phyllanthus, is a species of plant in the family Phyllanthaceae native to Queensland, Australia. It is a rainforest shrub, first described in 1935, which occurs in two widely separated populations. It has a conservation status of vulnerable.
Description
Phyllanthus brassii is a shrub up to high with simple, alternately arranged leaves held on very short petioles up to long. The leaves are elliptic to lanceolate and measure up to long and wide. The secondary veins form distinct loops inside the leaf margin and the tertiary venation is. The leaves are glossy green, hairless and fleshy, the petioles are thickened and dark.Flowers grow in fascicles, or clusters, from the on very long, slender pedicels about long. They are very small - the four sepals are only about long and just over wide. The fruit is a green or brown capsule about diameter, with three segments. Each segment contains a seed about long.
This species is dioecious, meaning that and flowers are borne on separate plants.
Taxonomy
It was first described in 1935 by Australian botanist Cyril Tenison White, based on material collected near the summit of Thornton Peak by plant collector Leonard John Brass. White published the name in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland.In 2022, Roderick Bouman et al. published a paper in the journal Phytotaxa, transferring this species to the genus Dendrophyllanthus. Their new name is not accepted by the Australian National Herbarium, nor by Plants of the World Online, and is considered to be invalidly published.
Distribution and habitat
This plant occurs only in Queensland, Australia in a very small part of Daintree National Park. It grows in rainforest, particularly along watercourses. The altitudinal range is. The area of occupancy of P. brassii is estimated to be aboutA population of plants at Bulburin National Park in southern Queensland was previously thought to be a disjunct occurrence of this species; it has now been separated as a potential new species and was given the phrase name Phyllanthus sp..