Phyllanthaceae
Flueggea

Flueggea leucopyrus Willd.

First published in Sp. Pl., ed. 4. 4: 757 (1806)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Ethiopia to Somalia, Socotra, Saudi Arabia (Sajid Island), Pakistan to China (Sichuan, Yunnan), Sri Lanka. It is a shrub or tree and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

M. Thulin et al. Flora of Somalia, Vol. 1-4 [updated 2008] https://plants.jstor.org/collection/FLOS

Morphology General Habit
Closely related to F. virosa, but a more densely branched shrub
Morphology General Bark
Bark often whitish
Morphology Branches
Side branches short, often spine-tipped
Morphology Leaves
Leaves smaller, 1–1.5(–2.5) cm long, obovate, tips truncate to emarginate.
Distribution
N1–3; C2; S2; E Ethiopia, Socotra, tropical Arabia, S India and Sri Lanka
Ecology
Altitude range 85–1620 m.
Note
The separation between F. leucopyrus and F. virosa is not clear-cut, but reports indicate that they are ecologically distinct in areas of apparent overlap. It is possible that some reports of F. leucopyrus refer to heavily browsed plants of F. virosa growing in exposed situations and this has been used to dismiss all records of F. leucopyrus from Africa. However, recent collections from Ethiopia, Socotra and Somalia strongly suggest that a second species of Flueggea, corresponding rather closely with F. leucopyrus, does occur in NE Africa.
[FSOM]

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/169273845/169300304

Conservation
LC - least concern
[IUCN]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora of Somalia

    • Flora of Somalia
    • 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/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. 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 2025. 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