Breynia retusa (Dennst.) Alston

The roots are used as a medicine for meningitis; its leaves are used to relieve skin inflammation. The 3-angled anther head is somewhat similar to that of some Sauropus.

Erect shrubs 0.5-3.5 m tall, glabrous throughout; branches slender. Stipules small, 1-2 × 0.6-0.7 mm; petiole 1-2.5 mm; leaf blade elliptic to slightly obovate, 1.5-3 × 0.7-1.5 cm, papery or thinly papery, abaxially grayish green or pruinose, adaxially green, base obtuse to rounded, apex rounded to subacute, mucronulate; lateral veins 3-7 pairs, slender, obscure. Flowers solitary or rarely 2 in axillary clusters. Male flowers: pedicels slender, ca. 1.5 mm; calyx campanulate to turbinate, 2-3 mm in diam., 6-lobed; sepals rounded to oblong; stamens 3, connate into 3-angled head, ca. 2 mm. Female flowers solitary; pedicels 0.5-1.5 mm; calyx campanulate, 6-lobed, ca. 4-6 mm in diam., ca. 1.5-3 mm high; sepals ovate-oblong, enlarged to ca. 12 mm in diam. in fruit; ovary globose; style present, very stout; stigmas with 3 short forked arms, ca. 0.5 mm. Fruiting pedicel 2-6 mm; capsules globose, 5-6 × 8-10 mm, exocarp fleshy, tardily dehiscent, red and ripening brown, apex smooth or with a shallow ring. Seeds 3.6-4 × 2.2-2.8 × 2.2-2.8 mm, yellow to red. Fl. Mar-Oct, fr. Feb-Mar, Jul-Aug.

Nepal, India, Ceylon, Burma.

Guangxi, Guizhou, Xizang, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia (peninsular), Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].

1100-1800 m

Open forests, valley scrub; 300-2000 m.

Phyllanthus retusus Dennstedt, Schlüssel Hortus Malab. Register 1: 15; Register 2: 24; Register 3: 31. 1818; Breynia hyposauropus Croizat; B. patens (Roxburgh) Rolfe; Melanthesopsis patens (Roxburgh) Müller Argoviensis; P. patens Roxburgh.

Breynia retusa is a species of plant in the family Phyllanthaceae.