Common Name

Slender Spurge, Dwarf Spurge

Family

Phyllanthaceae

Notes

Annual forb or shrub to 20cm tall. Leaves scattered along the stems or almost opposite each other, 0.5-1.4cm long, 2-7mm wide, flat, hairless becoming glaucous, sometimes with short stiff hairs or minute glands beneath. Male and female plants on the same plant or on different plants. Flowers small (less than 3mm across), green, with 6 'petals', the 'petals' free from each other, solitary on stalks arising from the bases of the leaves. Family Euphorbiaceae in SA. Vulnerable Vic.

Description as Phyllanthus rhytidospermus (page 462) and as Phyllanthus trachyspermus (page 463) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales. Phyllanthus rhytidospermus was subsumed into Sauropus trachyspermus in Flora of New South Wales Volume 1 (1990).

eFloraSA description with line drawings: http://www.flora.sa.gov.au/cgi-bin/speciesfacts_display.cgi?form=speciesfacts&name=Sauropus_trachyspermus