Phyllanthus reticulatus is a plant species described Jean Louis Marie Poiret; it is included in the family Phyllanthaceae.
The species is native to tropical Asia, New Guinea, northern Australia, and the Solomon and Santa Cruz Islands. It has been introduced to Jamaica. It has been confused with P. polyspermus.Luo, S.X., H.-J. Esser, D. Zhang, and S. S. Renner. 2011. Nuclear ITS sequences help disentangle Phyllanthus reticulatus (Phyllanthaceae), an Asian species not occurring in Africa, but introduced to Jamaica. Systematic Botany 36(1): 99-104. In Vietnamese its name is phèn đen (sometimes diệp hạ châu mạng). It is also found in Northern Australia, where the aborigines of the Moyle River area use the wood for firesticks and call it mirrinymirriny.
It is also found in abundance in the Terai areas of Uttar Pradesh, India, along the banks of ponds, which is called Sikati / Sikti () in the local language.
Phyllanthus reticulatus is pollinated by several different species of Epicephala (leafflower moths) in East Asia. The adult moths pollinate the flowers but lay eggs in the P. reticulatus flowers' ovaries, where the emerging larvae consume some of the developing seeds.Kawakita, A.; Kato, M. 2009. "Repeated independent evolution of obligate pollination mutualism in the Phyllantheae-Epicephala association." Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 276: 417–426.
Subspecies The following subspecies are listed in the Catalogue of Life: Phyllanthus reticulatus var. glaber (Thwaites) Müll.Arg. P. r. reticulatus (see synonyms)
Description Phyllanthus reticulatus is a shrub, sometimes partially scrambling and usually only up to 5 m high, with light reddish-brown or grey-brown with hairy stems when young, which become smooth with age. For a full description see Flora of China and the gallery below.
Gallery
References J.B.A.M.de Lamarck, 1804 In: Encycl. 5: 298 External links Phyllanthus reticulatus occurrence data from GBIF