Common Name

Stiff Spurge

Family

Phyllanthaceae

Notes

Shrub to 1.5m tall. Branches often ending in a spine. Leaves clustered, 0.1-1cm long, 2-3mm wide, more or less folded together lengthwise, hairless or minutely hairy or bristly, tips notched or rounded. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers with 6 'petals', fused in male flowers, more or less free from each other in female flowers. Male flowers often small (less than 3mm across). Flowers solitary at the bases of the leaf clusters, male flowers stalkless, female flowers with short stalks. Family Euphorbiaceae in SA.

Description and photo (as Phyllanthus rigens) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 462

PlantNET description with photo and line drawings of leaves and fruiting body:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Sauropus~rigens

Photo of leaves on branches. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Kevin Thiele, Mt Chambers Gorge, SA