ABSTRACT
The genus Phyllanthus includes more than 700 species. The species of Phyllanthus have no substantial economic demand. However, certain shrubby ones produce fruits consumed in southeast Asia. The investigations concentrated mainly on a herbaceous species, Phyllanthus amarus Schum, and Thonn., and more specifically, on a population gathered at Raviart. Consequently, flower formation in the genus Phyllanthus is under the combined influence of some meristems and the leaves, at a given stage of their ontogenesis. The elimination of correlations, by removal of various leaves, enabled the revelation of the morphogenetic properties of the leaf axils, so that some of the axes produced are intermediate between vegetative and floral branches. This leads to the conclusion that the onset of the flowering process, being a qualitative, clear change of expression of the plagiotropic branch of the intact plant, requires a “quantitative” preparation manifesting itself, under certain experimental conditions, by a whole range of intermediate structures between the vegetative axis and the flower.
