Monoecious, glabrous, erect annual or short-lived perennial herb, commonly 15–45 cm., but occasionally up to 1 m. tall, woody at the base.. Orthotropic stems ± terete, greenish brown. Plagiotropic shoots up to 14 cm. long, although not usually exceeding 11 cm., the older ones usually co-axillary with secondary orthotropic shoots.. Cataphylls linear-subulate, 1.5–2 mm. long, yellowish tawny at the base, purplish at the tip. Cataphyllary stipules triangular-lanceolate, 2 mm. long, reddish purple.. Leaves of the plagiotropic shoots distichous; petioles 0.2 mm. long; blades elliptic-ovate, elliptic, elliptic-oblong or oblong, 2–10 mm. long, 1–4 mm. wide, obtuse, mucronulate, subentire to minutely serrulate, rounded, membranaceous to thinly chartaceous, lateral nerves 6–8 pairs, indistinct above, ± distinct beneath, green above, glaucous and reddish tinged beneath.. Stipules linear-setaceous to subulate-filiform, 1.5–2 mm. long, ± entire, cream with a reddish median line.. Male flowers paired in the axils of the lower 1/3–1/2 of the flowering shoots, ♀ pendulous and solitary in those of the upper 1/2– 2/3.. Male flowers: pedicels 0.5 mm. long; sepals 5, obovate, 1 mm. long, rounded, creamy white; disc-glands 5, free, stellulate, sparingly tuberculate; stamens 3, filaments connate to form a column 0.5 mm. high, anthers free, transversely ovate, bilobed, horizontally held, 0.2 mm. across, laterally dehiscent, creamy yellow.. Female flowers: pedicels 1–1.3 mm. long, thickened apically, not or only slightly elongating in fruit; sepals 5, elliptic-obovate to elliptic-oblong, (1.5–)2(–4) mm. long, rounded or emarginate, greenish cream, occasionally pink tinged; disc annular, flat, thin, indistinctly crenulate; ovary very shortly stipitate, trilobate, 0.75 mm. diameter, minutely tuberculate, yellowish; styles free, 0.5 mm. long, slender, erect, bifid, cream, stigmas somewhat recurved, short, rounded at their apices.. Fruit depressed-trilobate-subglobose, 1–1.2 mm. long, 2–2.3 mm. diameter, tuberculate in the upper half, otherwise ± smooth, pale yellowish green.. Seeds triquetrous, 1 mm. long, with up to ± 20 longitudinal lines on the dorsal facet, and up to ± 12 concentric arcs on each ventral facet, with innumerable transverse striae between the lines and arcs, pale greyish-brown.
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Very like Phyllanthus taylorianus, differing chiefly in the rather more robust habit, the female sepals up to 4 mm in length, the female disk annular and indistinctly crenulate, the fruit tuberculate in the upper half only, and the slightly larger seeds with up to 25 parallel lines on the dorsal facet.
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