The tropical plant genus Phyllanthus has been the subject of debate in the taxonomic world for years. About fifteen years ago it became clear that the genus with nearly 900 plant species, contains plants that are considered separate groups. “Many subgroups were created to better distinguish the diversity of the large number of species,” according to Ph.D. candidate Roderick Bouman, who conducted the research. “But some groupings that were created based on similar appearances turned out not to be directly related.” Since previous studies had only investigated a small portion of all Phyllanthus species, this prompted to take a closer look at the entire genus. This resulted in Bouman’s doctoral research at the Hortus botanicus in Leiden.
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Source: Phys.org