Description: Herbs or small shrubs, monoecious.
Leaves alternate or opposite, entire.
Inflorescence a raceme, short, dense, ± head-like, solitary or several in a leafy terminal corymb; male and female flowers mixed. Flowers small, white. Sepals 5. Petals 5. Stamens 5; filaments free or united; anthers dehiscing by terminal pores. Ovary 6-lobed and 3-locular; 2 ovules in each loculus; styles bifid almost to base.
Capsule depressed-globose, opening in 6 valves; seeds trigonous.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 10 species, Australia, New Zealand. Australia: 8 species, all States except S.A.
Formerly in Euphorbiaceae.
Text by T.A. James & G.J. Harden, Flora of New South Wales Vol. 1: 394 (1990), in Euphorbiaceae
Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed May 2017)
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Poranthera leiosperma,
Poranthera obovata,
Poranthera oreophila
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves linear to narrow-ovate; margins recurved to revolute; dwarf shrubs | 2 |
| Leaves spathulate to obovate, margins more or less flat; annual herb | Poranthera microphylla |
| 2 | Leaves mostly 3–5 cm long, 1.5–4 mm wide, margins recurved to slightly revolute; stipules entire | Poranthera corymbosa |
| Leaves 8–12 mm long, c. 1–2 mm wide, margins mostly revolute; stipules lobed or jagged
Back to 1 | Poranthera ericifolia |
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