ABSTRACT
The first time I saw Phyllanthus caroliniensis in Florida was in the herb layer of a pinewoods that had recently burned. The plants were abundant for a year after the burn, and added a lacy green to the ground. Then, as other plants grew up, they disappeared. Soon afterward, the whole region became a housing development and those small herbs were gone. It all happened so fast that I never was able to learn much about these curious “leaf-flowers.”
