Outline of the Neotropical Infrageneric Taxa of Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae)
Outline of the neotropical infrageneric taxa of Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae) Grady L. Webster Section of Plant Biology, University of California, Davis, California, 95616, U.S.A. ABSTRACT. The 220 described neotropical species of Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae) are arranged in 33 sections belonging to 8 subgenera. Descriptions are given for one new subgenus, Cyclanthera, and five new sections – Antipodanthus, Salviniopsis, Pityrocladus, Hylaeanthus, and Sellowianthus. Three new subsections are described: sect. Phyllanthus subsect. Almadenses, sect. Phyllanthus subsect. Clausseniani; and sect. Choretropsis subsect. Choretropsis. Keys to species, and enumerations of them, are provided for new or revised sections and subsections. The 800-odd species of Phyllanthus, one of the larger genera of Euphorbiaceae, have recently been tabulated by Govaerts et al. (2000), but the subgenera and sections are not indicated. The first comprehensive arrangements of sections in Phyllanthus were published by Baillon (1858) and by Grisebach (1859). Jean Müller (1863, 1866, 1873) presented a much more sophisticated system involving sections and subsections; his arrangment was followed, almost unaltered, by Pax and Hoffmann (1931). Since then, the infrageneric taxa have been summarized by Webster (1956-58; 1967a) and by Webster and Airy Shaw 1971; for taxa in Australasia). Pollen characters have proved to be very important indicators of relationship (Webster, 1956, 1988; Punt, 1967, 1987). The outline proposed here reflects changes due to ongoing revision of the neotropical species of Phyllanthus (Webster, 1967b, 1968, 1970, 1978, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1999, 2001; and ined.). In addition to a key to the subgenera and sections, the 9 subgenera and their constituent sections are enumerated. Species are enumerated for most sections except for the West Indian taxa previously treated (Webster, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1991).
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