Phyllanthus is the largest in the . Phyllanthus has a remarkable diversity of growth forms including and , , climbing, floating aquatic, , and . It has a wide variety of and and has one of the widest varieties of types of any genus.

Despite their variety almost all Phyllanthus species express a specific type of growth called "phyllanthoid branching" in which the leaves on the main (vertical) plant axes are reduced to scales called "cataphylls" while leaves on the other axesplagiotropic (horizontal), and floriferous (flower-bearing)develop normally. Phyllanthus is distributed in all and regions on . Leafflower is the common name for all Phyllanthus species.