Phyllanthus acidus (L.) Skeels

First published in Bull. Bur. Pl. Industr. U.S.D.A. 148: 17 (1909)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Brazil (Pará). It is a shrub or tree and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome. It is used as a poison and a medicine, has environmental uses and for fuel and food.

Distribution

Native to:

Brazil North

Introduced into:

Andaman Is., Assam, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belize, Borneo, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Cayman Is., Christmas I., Comoros, Cuba, Dominican Republic, DR Congo, Florida, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Hawaii, India, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Lesser Sunda Is., Marianas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad-Tobago, Uganda, Vietnam, Windward Is.

Synonyms

Homotypic Synonyms

Heterotypic Synonyms

Classification

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PAFTOL

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  • Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
  • Balakrishnan, N.P. & Chakrabarty, T. (2007). The family Euphorbiaceae in India. A synopsis of its profile, taxonomy and bibliography: 1-500. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun.
  • Berendsohn, W.G., Gruber, A.K. & Monterrosa Salomón, J. (2009). Nova silva cusatlantica. Árboles nativos e introduciados de El Salvador. Parte 1: Angiospermae - Familias A a L. Englera 29-1: 1-438.
  • Catarino, L., Sampaio Martins, E., Pinto-Basto, M.F. & Diniz, M.A. (2006). Plantas Vasculares e Briófitos da Guiné-Bissau: 1-298. Instituto de investigação científica tropical, Instituto Português de apoio ao desenvolvimento.
  • Chakrabarty, T. & Balakrishnan, N.P. (2018). Indo-Burmese Phyllanthaceae: A Taxonomic Revision: 1-437. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun.
  • Dy Phon, P. (2000). Dictionnaire des plantes utilisées au Cambodge: 1-915. Chez l'auteur, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
  • Evenhuis, N.L. & Eldredge, L.G. (eds.) (2012). Records of the Hawaii biological survey for 2011. Part II: plants. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 113: 1-102.
  • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (2016). Flora of North America North of Mexico 12: 1-603. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
  • Florence, J. (1997). Flore de la Polynésie Française 1: 1-393. ORSTOM éditions, Paris.
  • Garcia-Mendoza, A.J. & Meave, J.A. (eds.) (2012). Diversidad florística de Oaxaca: de musgos a angiospermas (colecciones y listas de especies), ed. 2: 1-351. Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
  • George, A.S., Orchard, A.E. & Hewson, H.J. (eds.) (1993). Oceanic islands 2. Flora of Australia 50: 1-606. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
  • Girmansyah, D. & al. (eds.) (2013). Flora of Bali an annotated checklist: 1-158. Herbarium Bogorensis, Indonesia.
  • Govaerts, R., Frodin, D.G. & Radcliffe-Smith, A. (2000). World Checklist and Bibliography of Euphorbiaceae (and Pandaceae) 1-4: 1-1622. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Ilunga wa Ilunga, E. & Meerts, P. (2020). Flore d'Afrique Centrale (Zaïre - Rwanda - Burundi), Phyllanthaceae: 1-163. Jardin Botanique National de Belgique, Meise.
  • Karthigeyan, K., Pandey, R.P. & Mao, A.A. (eds.) (2023). Flora of Andaman and Nicobar Islands 2: 1-689. Botanical Survey of India. Ministry of environment, forest and climate change.
  • Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
  • Pasha, M.K. & Uddin, S.B. (2013). Dictionary of plant names of Bangladesh, Vasc. Pl.: 1-434. Janokalyan Prokashani, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
  • Pasha, M.K., Chakrabarthy, T. & Balakrishnan, N.P. (2013). A taxonomic revision of Phyllanthus L. (Euphorbiaceae) in Bangladesh. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 37: 291-304.
  • Sosef, M.S.M. & al. (2006). Check-list des plantes vasculaires du Gabon. Scripta Botanica Belgica 35: 1-438.
  • Stevens, W.D., Ulloa U., C., Pool, A. & Montiel, O.M. (2001). Flora de Nicaragua. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 85: i-xlii, 1-2666. Missouri Botanical Garden.
  • van Welzen, P.C. & Chayamarit, K. (2007). Flora of Thailand 8(2): 305-592. The Forest Herbarium, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.

Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  • Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
  • Barthelat, F. (2019). La flore illustrée de Mayotte: 1-687. Biotope éditions.
  • Catarino, L., Sampaio Martins, E., Pinto-Basto, M.F. & Diniz, M.A. (2006). Plantas Vasculares e Briófitos da Guiné-Bissau: 1-298. Instituto de investigação científica tropical, Instituto Português de apoio ao desenvolvimento.
  • Chakrabarty, T. & Balakrishnan, N.P. (2018). Indo-Burmese Phyllanthaceae: A Taxonomic Revision: 1-437. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun.
  • Dy Phon, P. (2000). Dictionnaire des plantes utilisées au Cambodge: 1-915. Chez l'auteur, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
  • Evenhuis, N.L. & Eldredge, L.G. (eds.) (2012). Records of the Hawaii biological survey for 2011. Part II: plants. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 113: 1-102.
  • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (2016). Flora of North America North of Mexico 12: 1-603. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
  • Fosberg, F.R., Sachet, M.-H., Oliver, R. (1979). A geographical checklist of the Micronesian Dicotyledonae. Micronesica; Journal of the College of Guam 15: 41-295.
  • George, A.S., Orchard, A.E. & Hewson, H.J. (eds.) (1993). Oceanic islands 2. Flora of Australia 50: 1-606. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
  • Girmansyah, D. & al. (eds.) (2013). Flora of Bali an annotated checklist: 1-158. Herbarium Bogorensis, Indonesia.
  • Gonzalez, F., Nelson Diaz, J. & Lowry, P. (1995). Flora Illustrada de San Andrés y Providencia: 1-281. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Colombia.
  • Ilunga wa Ilunga, E. & Meerts, P. (2020). Flore d'Afrique Centrale (Zaïre - Rwanda - Burundi), Phyllanthaceae: 1-163. Jardin Botanique National de Belgique, Meise.
  • Pandey, R.P. & Dilwakar, P.G. (2008). An integrated check-list flora of Andaman and Nicobar islands, India. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 32: 403-500.
  • Pasha, M.K. & Uddin, S.B. (2013). Dictionary of plant names of Bangladesh, Vasc. Pl.: 1-434. Janokalyan Prokashani, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
  • Pasha, M.K., Chakrabarthy, T. & Balakrishnan, N.P. (2013). A taxonomic revision of Phyllanthus L. (Euphorbiaceae) in Bangladesh. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 37: 291-304.
  • Sosef, M.S.M. & al. (2006). Check-list des plantes vasculaires du Gabon. Scripta Botanica Belgica 35: 1-438.
  • Stevens, W.D., Ulloa U., C., Pool, A. & Montiel, O.M. (2001). Flora de Nicaragua. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 85: i-xlii, 1-2666. Missouri Botanical Garden.

Kew Plants for Health

  • "Duke's Phytochem. & Ethnobot. Databases. (Duke, 1992-2016)"
  • "SEPASAL database. (RBG Kew, 1999)"
  • "UPWTA (Burkill, 2025)"
  • "World Checklist of Useful Pl. Spp. (Diazgranados et al., 2020)"
  • GRIN (USDA)
  • MPNS Import
  • US-FDA GSRS (2025)

Flora of Tropical East Africa

  • J.P.M. Brenan, Check-lists of the Forest Trees and Shrubs of the British Empire no. 5, part II, Tanganyika Territory p. 222 (1949).
  • Keay, Flora of West Tropical Africa, ed. 2, 1: 388 (1958).
  • Skeels in U.S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Pl. Ind. Bull. 148: 17 (1909).
  • Webster in Journ. Arn. Arb. 38: 66 (1957).

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
  • Burkill HM. (1995). The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vols. 1-3. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vols 1-3.
  • Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
  • Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
  • FPI (2021). Food Plants International. https://fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World?homeurl=https://foodplantsinternational.com/plants/
  • GBIF.org (2021). GBIF species matching tool. https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup
  • GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ars-grin.gov/
  • Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/
  • PROTA (2021). Plants Resources of Tropical Africa. https://prota4u.org/database/
  • RBG, Kew (2021). Kew Economic Botany Collection. https://ecbot.science.kew.org/
  • RBG, Kew (ed.) (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London.
  • Willis, K.J. (ed.) (2017). State of the World’s Plants 2017. Report. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
Jan 1, 2008 Palmer, E.W. [287] Mexico K000478586 No
Jan 1, 1978 Chevalier, A. [13305] Guinea K000406117 Unknown Type Material Yes
Bourne [5158] India K004517047 Yes
[Dr. Shuter] [s.n.] India K004517043 Yes
[Dr Shuter] [s.n.] India K004517044 Yes
Powell, D.A. [93] Christmas Island K004517816 Yes
Wall; [E.J.] [7950] India K004517041 Yes
Edgeworth, M.P. [121] India K004517031 Yes
Harsukh [22530] India K004517033 Yes
Clarke, C.B. [8451] Bangladesh K004517040 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] K004517819 Yes
Abubakar [4107] K004517817 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] K004517680 Yes
Ashton, P.S. [BRUN5171] Brunei K004517815 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] India K004517048 Yes
Gamble, J.S. [11227] India K004517045 Yes
Degener, O.; Degener, I. [30116] United States K004860198 Yes
Cuming [1178] Philippines K004518277 Yes
[Dr Abel] [s.n.] K004517039 Yes
Gamble, J.S. [7762] India K004517042 Yes
Drummond, J.R. (Mr.) [21758] India K004517034 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] K004517036 Yes
Thailand K:SPC-80183.000 No
Gamble, J.S. [11227] India K004517046 Yes
s.coll. [5812] K004517037 Yes
Mr Law [529] K004517035 Yes
Elmer, A.D.E. [5641] Philippines K004518279 Yes
Merrill, E.D. [3804] Philippines K004518280 Yes
Loher, A. [4753] Philippines K004518278 Yes
Jamaica K:SPC-66739.000 No
s.coll. [s.n.] K004517679 Yes
Singapore K:SPC-66193.000 No
Edaño, G.E. [s.n.] Philippines K004518282 Yes
Loher, A. [4752] Philippines K004518275 Yes
Merrill [617] K004518281 Yes
Cuadra, A. [A2194] K004517818 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] Burma K004517049 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] K004517032 Yes
Williams; Stainton [8537] Nepal K004517050 Yes
Cuming, H. [1178] Philippines K004518276 Yes
s.coll. [s.n.] K004517038 Yes
Balsinhas, A. [2458] Mozambique K004863084 Yes

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
  • Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
  • Colombian resources for Plants made Accessible

    • ColPlantA 2021. Published on the Internet at http://colplanta.org
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
  • EBC Common Names

    • Common Names from Kew's Economic Botany Collection https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/collections/economic-botany-collection
  • Flora Zambesiaca

    • Flora Zambesiaca
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images
  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0