Sauropus Blume

Scientific Description

Family Euphorbiaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs, or herbs (sometimes from a woody base); evergreen, or deciduous; laticiferous, or non-laticiferous and without coloured juice, or with coloured juice. Plants succulent, or non-succulent. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves minute to medium-sized; alternate; spiral, or distichous; membranous (or chartaceous); very shortly petiolate to sessile; non-sheathing; gland-dotted, or not gland-dotted; simple. Leaf blades entire; pinnately veined (usually). Leaves with stipules. Stipules small, triangular to subulate; caducous, or persistent. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Urticating hairs present, or absent. Stem anatomy. Nodes tri-lacunar, or unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous; from a single cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Unisexual flowers present. Plants monoecious, or dioecious. Male flowers without pistillodes. Entomophilous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in fascicles. Inflorescences axillary; sometimes appearing racemose on short branchlets. Flowers bracteate, or ebracteate; minute to small; regular. Floral receptacle developing an androphore, or with neither androphore nor gynophore (? depending on interpretation of the staminal column). Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent. Perianth sepaline; 5–6; 2 -whorled; isomerous (usually), or anisomerous. Calyx (5–)6; 2 -whorled; polysepalous (and erect or spreading), or gamosepalous (then male flowers either forming a tube, or frequently flattened into an entire or acutely 6–12-lobed disk, the sepal apices pointing inward and fitting closely around the androecium; female flowers mostly more or less turbinately connate below); regular; accrescent, or non-accrescent. Fertile stamens present, or absent (female flowers). Androecium 3. Androecial members free of the perianth; coherent (connate in a short column), or free of one another (rarely). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 3; isomerous with the perianth; erect in bud, or inflexed in bud. Anthers separate from one another, or cohering (connate); dehiscing via longitudinal slits; extrorse, or introrse; bisporangiate, or tetrasporangiate. Fertile gynoecium present, or absent (male flowers). Gynoecium 3 carpelled. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious, or synstylovarious (depending on interpretation of partially connate styles); superior. Ovary plurilocular; 3 locular. Styles 3; free, or partially joined (connate below into a conspicuous column); simple (and short broad), or forked (then branches often curved or coiled); apical. Stigmas 3, or 6; dry type; papillate, or non-papillate; Group II type. Placentation axile, or apical. Ovules 2 per locule; pendulous; epitropous; with ventral raphe, or with dorsal raphe; collateral; non-arillate; hemianatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy, or fleshy (often crustaceous, sometimes succulent and berry-like); a schizocarp; elastically dehiscent (schizocarpic capsules often splitting elastically), or passively dehiscent. Seeds 2 or more per mericarp (2-seeded). Seeds triquetrous; endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds non-arillate. Cotyledons 2 (usually wider than the radicle). Embryo straight, or curved. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar, or cryptocotylar.

Physiology, biochemistry. Mustard-oils present, or absent.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Not endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales. Northern Botanical Province.