Breynia fruticosa (L.) Müll. Arg.

The roots and leaves are used as medicine for inflammation of intestine and stomach, sore throat, eczema, etc. The branches, leaves, and stem contain up to 12% tannins.

Erect shrubs 1-3(-5) m tall, glabrous throughout; stem gray-brown; branches compressed at upper part, purple; branchlets green. Stipules triangular-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm; petiole 3-4 mm; leaf blade ovate, broadly ovate, or rhombic-ovate, 3-7 × 1.8-3.5 cm, leathery, abaxially pruinose-green, adaxially dark green, base obtuse or acute, apex (obtuse or) acute to subacuminate; lateral veins 3-8 pairs. Flowers small, solitary or 2-4-flowered in axillary clusters, male in proximal axils, female in distal axils, sometimes male and female apart, inserted in different branchlets. Male flowers: pedicels 2-3 mm; calyx turbinate, ca. 2 mm, thickened, 6-dentate at apex; stamens 3, connate into a column. Female flowers usually several per axil; pedicels ca. 2 mm; calyx campanulate, shallowly 6-fid at apex, ca. 4 mm in diam.; sepals subequal, subtruncate and apiculate at apex, much enlarged in fruit to ca. 8 mm in diam., upper part radial-spreading into disk; ovary ovoid; stigmas 3, to ca. 0.6 mm, distinctly bifid at apex, lobes recurved, elongating in fruit to 1-2 mm. Fruiting pedicel ca. 5 mm; capsules globose, 5-6 × 6-8 mm, apex rounded, without apical rim, yellowish to orange; stigmas free, undivided or apically slightly bifid. Seeds 4.6-5 × ca. 3 × 3 mm, red. Fl. year-round, fr. May-Dec.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Laos, Thailand, Vietnam].

Montane slopes, scrub, sunny forest margins; 100-1000 m.

Andrachne fruticosa Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1014. 1753; Melanthesa chinensis Blume; M. glaucescens Miquel; Melanthesopsis fruticosa (Linnaeus) Müller Argoviensis; M. lucens (Poiret) Müller Argoviensis; Phyllanthus lucens Poiret; P. turbinatus Sims.