Flueggea
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Flueggea' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Family
- Phyllanthaceae
Editorial Note
Bean dealt with one species only, under the genus Securinega. Morphological studies (Webster 1984), later confirmed by molecular data, have since shown that genus to be polyphyletic, and Securinega s.s. (tribe Bridelieae) is now restricted to a handful of species from the Madagascar and the Mascarenes, distinguished from Flueggea by ovule orientation, wood anatomy and pollen structure (Barker & van Weizen 2010). The systematics of Phyllanthaceae – only recently split from Euphorbiaceae – has been the object of a comprehensive, and quite recent, process of revision and reordering (see e.g. Leptopus, Phyllanthus, Phyllanthopsis, Bischofia). The text below reproduces Bean’s text, adjusted to reflect updated taxonomy. A fuller, revised treatment will be provided when funding is available. If you would like to sponsor the account of this genus please write to editor@treesandshrubsonline.org
Shrubs or trees, usually dioecious. Leaves alternate, simple. Inflorescences usually axillary. Flowers without petals, unisexual, actinomorphic, (4–)5(–7) sepals, persistent in fruit. Male flowers with (4–)5(–7) stamens which are longer than the sepals and inserted outside a lobed disc. Female flowers with an unlobed disc; styles three. Fruit a capsule dehiscing into three merocarps. Bean 1981, Barker & van Weizen 2010
This genus of 18 species with a cosmopolitan distribution is closely related to Phyllanthus (tribe Phyllantheae, subfamily Phyllanthoideae).