The Phyllanthus sepialis is typically only 1.5 metres tall, but can grow up to 5 metres in the right conditions. It is open-branched and commonly harvested from the wild for local medicinal purposes. For example, boiled roots of the Phyllanthus sepialis are given to pregnant women as a tonic. The twigs make great toothbrushes and the tough, greyish-white or reddish wood is useful in producing kitchen utensils.

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“When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

Deuteronomy 20:19-20