Sauropus 
Leaves and stems may be glabrous or pilose with 
coarse patent hairs. Stipules c. 3 mm long. Leaf blades 
slightly discolorous, elliptic, obovate or ovate, 14-40 
mm long, 9-21 mm wide, L/B 1.4-2, base cuneate or 
obtuse, margin recurved. Flowers dioecious; males 
in fascicles in the axils, on pedicels 2-4 mm long; 
tepals c. 2.5 mm long; anthers almost sessile; females 
solitary in the axils, on pedicels 3-7 mm long; tepals 
obovate, 2-2.5 mm long; styles spreading, fused to 
the top of the ovary; stigmas erect. Capsule not seen. 
Seeds not seen. Flowering: Aug - Dec. Fig. 78 
Probably endemic to the NT; recorded from 
Melville Is. and coastal Arnhem Land. This 
species occurs on deep sandy soils either in open 
forest or on treeless plains. 
S. ‘Tiwi’ 
An erect to procumbent, glabrous few- 
multistemmed subshrub to 30 cm tall. Stems 
EUPHORBIACEAE 237 
angular, foliose throughout. Stipules brown, c. 1 mm 
long. Leaf blades slightly discolorous, narrowly el- 
liptic, lanceolate or occasionally linear, 11-40 mm 
long, 1.5-9 mm wide, L/B 4.2-10, base attenuate, apex 
acute. Flowers dioecious; males in fascicles in the 
axils, on pedicels 1-3.5 mm long; tepals 2.5-4 mm 
long, connate for 2/3 to 3/4 of their length, apex of 
androphore acute and exceeding the anthers; females 
solitary in the axils, on pedicels 1-6 mm long; tepals 
linear, 3-4 mm long; styles bifid. Capsule grey, 
smooth, ovoid, 7-10 mm long, 6-9 mm diam. Seeds 
white-brown, 6-9 mm long, with a thin firm spongy, 
irregularly pitted surface, margins sharply angled with 
irregular scallops. Flowering and fruiting: mainly Sept 
- May, but also at other times following fire. Fig. 78 
Probably endemic to the western Top End of the 
NT. In the DR this species is common and occurs on 
well drained, often sandy soils in open forest and 
woodland. 
SEBASTIANIA Spreng. 
A genus of c. 100 species occurring mainly in the New World. One species occurs in Australia. 
S. chamaelea (L.) Muell.Arg. 
An erect glabrous slender evergreen shrub to 1 m 
tall. Stems finely ribbed. Stipules c. 1 mm long, 
persistent, margins often fimbriate. Leaves simple, 
alternate, bifacial, on petioles 1-5 mm long; blades 
narrowly elliptic, oblong, oblanceolate, rarely 
linear-oblong or ovate, 12-70 mm long, 2-18 mm 
wide, L/B (2.2)3.5-9(16), base attenuate, margins 
sclerotic, regularly and finely serrulate with (1)2 
depressed glands on each side c. 3 mm up from the 
base, apex acute, obtuse or emarginate. Flowers 
dioecious or occasionally monoecious; males in 
minute slender spikes 27-50 mm long; tepals 3, ovate 
to orbicular, <1 mm long, with fimbriate margins; 
anthers 3, almost sessile, globular. Females solitary 
in the axils or at the base of the male inflorescence, 
subtended by fimbriate bracts with a pair of axillary 
stipitate glands, pedicels stout, c. 2 mm long, tepals 
similar to male, 1.5-2 mm long, sometimes with red 
filiform glands, styles 3, spreading. Capsule 3-locular 
with 1 seed per locule, greenish often with a tinge of 
red, oblong, 5-7 mm long, c. 6 mm diam., smooth 
or with 2-4 pairs of spines on each locule. Seeds 
flattened oblong, c. 5 mm long, mottled, carunculate. 
Flowering and fruiting: most months. Fig. 78 
An Old World species distributed from India to 
northern Australia. In Australia common in savanna 
on well drained soils. ; 
