Flueggea leucopyrus / Securinega leucopyrus / Phyllanthus leucopyrus – Indian Snowberry, White Honey Shrub, Bushweed, Cool Pot, Thermacole Plant, Shivano

Description

This species is accepted, and its native range is Ethiopia to Somalia, Socotra, Saudi Arabia (Sajid Island), Pakistan to China (Sichuan, Yunnan), Sri Lanka.

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub 2-3 m tall.

Leaves usually produced on short lateral side shoots from the main twigs. Leaf blades small, about 1-3 x 0.5-1.2 cm +/- tapering gradually into the grooved petiole. Midrib and lateral veins white or cream. Stipules small but persistent. Larger twigs longitudinally grooved or ribbed.

Perianth segments about 1 mm long in male and female flowers. Ovary seated on a saucer-shaped gland with irregular margins. Stigmas three, each bilobed.

Fruits depressed globular, about 6 mm diam. Tepals persistent at the base of the fruit and styles persistent at the apex. On the concave side of the seed the testa intrudes into the endosperm. Embryo white. Cotyledons much wider than the radicle.

Cotyledons about 5-7 x 2-5 mm. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade obovate or orbicular, about 9-10 x 7-8 mm, apex retuse or emarginate. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin. Petiole grooved or channelled on the upper surface. Stipules narrowly triangular, rather small and inconspicuous less than 1 mm long, usually with some reddish brown hairs on the margin. Seed germination time 19 to 240 days.

Occurs in NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as south eastern Queensland. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 800 m. Grows in open forest but more common in vine thickets and monsoon forest. Also occurs in southern India and Sri Lanka.