Spurred Phyllanthus

engleri: named after Dr Prof Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (1844-1930), German Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Berlin, who initiated extensive botanical exploration in Africa.

Glabrous, dioecious, shrub or small tree to 8 m. Bark grey, fissured. Leafy branchlets up to 30 cm, borne on stout 2-3 cm long spur-branchlets these bearing scale leaves, which harden into thick, stout spines. Foliage leaves usually suborbicular, dull to yellowish green above, ± glaucous beneath; apex rounded or obtuse; stipules 1-4 mm, lancolate, caducous. Flowers in fascicles. Male flowers: sepals (4-)5, strongly imbricate, ovate; disk glands 5; stamens free. Female flowers not known. Fruit subglobose, 1.5-2 × 2-2.5 cm, 3-lobed, yellowish-green, Seeds up to 6, c. 1 cm long.

Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique