Genus of flowering plants
Phyllanthus is the largest genus in the plant family Phyllanthaceae. Estimates of the number of species in this genus vary widely, from 750 to 1200. "Phyllanthus" has a remarkable diversity of growth forms including annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, climbers, floating aquatics, and pachycaulous succulents. Some have flattened leaflike stems called cladodes. It has a wide variety of floral morphologies and chromosome numbers and has one of the widest range of pollen types of any seed plant genus.
Despite their variety, almost all "Phyllanthus" species express a specific type of growth called "phyllanthoid branching" in which the vertical stems bear deciduous, floriferous (flower-bearing), plagiotropic (horizontal or oblique) stems. The leaves on the main (vertical) axes are reduced to scales called "cataphylls", while leaves on the other axes develop normally. "Phyllanthus" is distributed in all tropical and subtropical regions on Earth.
"Phyllanthus" was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, but the type was not designated.
Species.
The circumscription of this genus has been a cause of much confusion and disagreement. Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that "Phyllanthus" is paraphyletic over "Reverchonia", "Glochidion", "Sauropus", and "Breynia." A 2006 revision of the family Phyllanthaceae has subsumed all four of these genera into "Phyllanthus". This enlarged version of "Phyllanthus" might eventually be divided into smaller genera, including 32 Chinese (and northern Indochinese) species. A complete overhaul of the genus, including a new classification is currently underway, following a recent indepth molecular treatment of major groups included. 
Selected species.
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Fossil record.
Two fossil seeds of a "Phyllanthus" species have been extracted from borehole samples of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland. The seeds are similar to seeds of the fossil species †"Phyllanthus triquetra" and †"Phyllanthus compassica" from the Oligocene and Miocene of West Siberia. "Phyllanthus" fossils are known from several Miocene and Pliocene sites in Poland.
Pollination biology.
"Phyllanthus" are of note in the fields of pollination biology and coevolution because some but not all species in the genus have a specialized mutualism with moths in the genus "Epicephala" (leafflower moths), in which the moths actively pollinate the flowers. While ensuring that the tree may produce viable seeds, the moths also lay eggs in the flowers' ovaries where their larvae consume a subset of the developing seeds as nourishment. Other species of "Epicephala" are pollinators of certain species of plants in the genera "Glochidion" and "Breynia", both of which are phylogenetically nested within "Phyllanthus".
Research and traditional medicine.
Particularly for its content of tannins, "P. emblica" fruit has a history of use in traditional medicine and is under study for its potential biological properties. Leaves, roots, stem, bark and berries of this genus contain lignans and other phytochemicals.
References.
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