Glochidion

Glochidion is a genus of flowering plants, of the family Phyllanthaceae, known as cheese trees or buttonwood in Australia, and leafflower trees in the scientific literature. It comprises about 300 species, distributed from Madagascar to the Pacific Islands. Glochidion species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Aenetus eximia and Endoclita damor. The Nicobarese people have attested to the medicinal properties found in G. calocarpum, saying that its bark and seed are most effective in curing abdominal disorders associated with amoebiasis.

Glochidion are of note in the fields of pollination biology and coevolution because they have a specialized mutualism with moths in the genus Epicephala (leafflower moths), in which the moths actively pollinate the flowers—thereby ensuring that the tree may produce viable seeds—but also lay eggs in the flowers' ovaries, where their larvae consume a subset of the developing seeds as nourishment. Other species of Epicephala are pollinators, and in some cases, non-pollinating seed predators, of certain species of plants in the genera Phyllanthus and Breynia,  both closely related to Glochidion. This relationship is similar to those between figs and fig wasps and yuccas and yucca moths.

Although the genus Glochidion is native only to the Old World, the East Asian species Glochidion puberum has become naturalized at several locations in the U.S. state of Alabama.

In a 2006 revision of the Phyllanthaceae, it was recommended that Glochidion be subsumed in Phyllanthus. New combinations in Phyllanthus have been published for Madagascar and the Pacific Islands, but most remain to be published.

Selected species
328 species are accepted. Selected species include:


 * Glochidion apodogynum
 * Glochidion barronense
 * Glochidion benthamianum
 * Glochidion bourdillonii
 * Glochidion calocarpum
 * Glochidion candolleanum (synonyms Glochidion pauciflorum Gamble and Glochidion sisparense Gamble)
 * Glochidion carrickii
 * Glochidion christophersenii
 * Glochidion comitum
 * Glochidion disparipes
 * Glochidion eriocarpum
 * Glochidion ferdinandi - cheese tree, buttonwood, pencil cedar, water gum, rain tree
 * var. ferdinandi
 * var. pubens


 * Glochidion grantii
 * Glochidion harveyanum - buttonwood, daphne buttonwood
 * var. harveyanum
 * var. pubescens


 * Glochidion hohenackeri (Müll.Arg.) Bedd.
 * Glochidion hohenackeri var. hohenackeri
 * Glochidion hohenackeri var. johnstonei (Hook.f.) Chakrab. & M.Gangop. (synonym Glochidion johnstonei Hook.f.)
 * Glochidion hylandii
 * Glochidion insulare
 * Glochidion lanceolarium
 * Glochidion lobocarpum
 * Glochidion longfieldiae
 * Glochidion manono
 * Glochidion marchionicum (synonym Glochidion tooviianum J.Florence)
 * Glochidion moonii
 * Glochidion moorei
 * Glochidion myrtifolium
 * Glochidion nadeaudii
 * Glochidion nemorale (synonym Glochidion gardneri Thwaites)
 * Glochidion papenooense
 * Glochidion perakense - umbrella cheese tree, buttonwood
 * var. supra-axillare


 * Glochidion philippicum
 * Glochidion pitcairnense
 * Glochidion pruinosum
 * Glochidion puberum
 * Glochidion pungens
 * Glochidion raivavense
 * Glochidion ramiflorum J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.
 * Glochidion rapaense
 * Glochidion seemannii Müll.-Arg.
 * Glochidion sessiliflorum
 * var. pedicellatum
 * var. sessiliflorum
 * var. stylosum


 * Glochidion stellatum (Retz.) Bedd.
 * Glochidion stylosum Ridl.
 * Glochidion symingtonii Airy Shaw
 * Glochidion taitense Baill. ex Müll-Arg.
 * Glochidion temehaniense J.W.Moore
 * Glochidion xerocarpum
 * Glochidion zeylanicum (Gaertn.) A.Juss.
 * Glochidion zeylanicum var. arborescens (Blume) Chakrab. & M.Gangop.
 * Glochidion zeylanicum var. arunachalense Chakrab. & M.Gangop.
 * Glochidion zeylanicum var. paucicarpum Chakrab. & N.P.Balakr.
 * Glochidion zeylanicum var. tomentosum (Dalzell) Trimen (synonym Glochidion tomentosum Dalzell)
 * Glochidion zeylanicum var. zeylanicum (synonym Glochidion sumatranum )