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Mousetail Plant
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Mousetail Plant
ntroduced Photo: Thingnam Sophia
Common name: Mousetail Plant, Myrtle-leaved Leaf Flower
Botanical name: Phyllanthus myrtifolius    Family: Phyllanthaceae (Amla family)

Mousetail Plant is a small shrub about 50 cm tall with tiny inverted-lance shaped leaves and small, slender, pendulous red flowers which probably inspired the name Mousetail Plant. Branches are cylidrical, branchlets wing-angled, angles rough. Alternately arranged leaves are inverted-lance shaped, 1.2-1.6 cm long and 3.5-4.5 mm wide, leathery, smooth, tip not sharp pointed. Flowers are borne in several-flowered fascicles in leaf axils. Flowers are typically longer than the leaves and hang down by slender, red filament-like stalks, ending in a roundish bowl-like flower. Fruits are capsules 2 mm long, 3 mm wide. Mousetail Plant is native to SW India and Sri Lanka. It is grown as an ornamental, particularly as a bonsai in NE India. Flowering: May-August.
Medicinal uses: Mousetail Plant is grown as a medicinal plant in China.

Identification credit: Sweedle Cerejo Photographed in Imphal, Manipur.

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