''Leptopus'', the maidenbushes, are a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of plants in the family

Phyllanthaceae Phyllanthaceae is a family of flowering plants in the eudicot order Malpighiales. It is most closely related to the family Picrodendraceae.Kenneth J. Wurdack and Charles C. Davis. 2009. "Malpighiales phylogenetics: Gaining ground on one of the ...

native to southern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

from the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

east to China and Maluku.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref>Flora of China Vol. 11 Page 169 雀舌木属 que she mu shu ''Leptopus'' Decaisne in Jacquemont, Voy. Inde. 4(Bot.): 155. 1835.
/ref> The plants are

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy i ...

herbs In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicina ...

and shrubs with

simple Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: * Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by John ...

entire Entire may refer to: * Entire function, a function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane * Entire (animal) Neutering, from the Latin ''neuter'' ('of neither sex'), is the removal of an animal's reproductive organ, either all of it or a ...

leaves and small, green

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism ...

s. ''Leptopus'' is one of eight genera in the tribe

Poranthereae Poranthereae is a tribe in the plant family Phyllanthaceae. It is one of ten tribes in the family, and one of four tribes in the subfamily Phyllanthoideae. Poranthereae comprises about 111 species, distributed into eight genera. The largest gener ...

Petra Hoffmann, Hashendra S. Kathriarachchi, and Kenneth J. Wurdack. 2006. "A Phylogenetic Classification of Phyllanthaceae." ''Kew Bulletin'' 61(1):37-53. and comprises 9

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

. Maria S. Vorontsova and Petra Hoffmann. 2008. "A phylogenetic classification of tribe Poranthereae (Phyllanthaceae)." ''Kew Bulletin'' 63(1):41-59. It is the

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

of '' Actephila''. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

is '' Leptopus cordifolius''.''Leptopus'' In: Index Nominum Genericorum. In:

Regnum Vegetabile The International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) is an organization established to promote an understanding of plant biodiversity, facilitate international communication of research between botanists, and oversee matters of uniformity and ...

(see ''External links'' below). The name is derived from two

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

words, ''leptos'', "thin, slender, or small", and ''pous'', "foot", a reference to slender

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

.Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'' volume II. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington,DC;, USA. London, UK. . The genus was first described in 1836Tropicos, ''Leptopus'' Decne.
/ref> and revised in 2009. Maria S. Vorontsova and Petra Hoffmann. 2009. "Revision of the genus ''Leptopus'' (Phyllanthaceae, Euphorbiaceae sensu lato)". ''Kew Bulletin'' 64(4):627-644. ''Leptopus fangdingianus'' had been placed by some authors in a separate genus, ''Archileptopus'', but it was shown in 2007 that recognition of ''Archileptopus'' makes ''Leptopus''

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

.Maria S. Vorontsova, Petra Hoffmann, Olivier Maurin, and Mark W. Chase. 2007. "Phylogenetics of tribe Poranthereae (Phyllanthaceae)." ''American Journal of Botany'' 94(12):2026-2040. ''Phyllanthopsis phyllanthoides'' has been placed in ''Leptopus'' as well as in ''

Andrachne ''Andrachne'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Phyllanthaceae described by Linnaeus in 1753. It is one of eight genera in the tribe Poranthereae. Maria S. Vorontsova and Petra Hoffmann. 2008. "A phylogenetic classification of tribe Po ...

''. In 2007, it was shown to not properly belong to either genus and in 2008 was assigned to a new genus, ''

Phyllanthopsis ''Phyllanthopsis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Phyllanthaceae. It is one of the eight genera in the tribe Poranthereae. It has two species. The type species is ''Phyllanthopsis phyllanthoides''. ''Phyllanthopsis'' is native to ...

''. ;Species ;formerly included moved to other genera: '' Chorisandrachne

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to t ...

Notoleptopus ''Notoleptopus'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Phyllanthaceae. It is one of eight genera in the tribe Poranthereae. The sole species is ''Notoleptopus decaisnei''. It is a monoecious shrub, native to Australia, New Guin ...

References

External links

Leptopus
At:
Index Nominum Genericorum
At:

At:

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2625486 Phyllanthaceae Phyllanthaceae genera Taxa named by Joseph Decaisne