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see text Ref: Delta as of 2002-07-13 |
The Spurge family (Euphorbiaceae) is a large family of flowering plants with 335 genera and more than 7,500 species.
Most are herbs, but some, especially in the tropics, are shrubs or trees. Some are succulent and resemble cacti.
This family occurs mainly in the tropics, with the majority of the species in the Indo-Malayan region and tropical South America a good second. However, Euphorbia has many species in non-tropical areas such as the Mediterranean, the Middle East, South Africa and southern USA.
The leaves are alternate, seldom opposed, with stipules. They are mainly simple. But when they are compound, they are always palmate, never pinnate. The stipules may be reduced to hairs, glands or spines.
The radially symmetrical flowers are unisexual, with the male and the female flowers usually occurring on the same plant. As can be expected from such a large family, there is a wide variety in the structure of the flowers. They can be monoecious or dioecious. The stamens (the male organs) can number from 1 to 10 (or even more). The female flowers are hypogynous, i.e. with a superior ovary.
The genera Euphorbia and Chamaesyce show a highly specialized form of inflorescence, called a cyathium. This is usually a small cup-like involucre. This consists of peripheral horseshoe-shaped nectaries surrounding a ring of male flowers, consisting of a single stamen. In the middle of it, stands the female flower with a single pistil with branchzed stigmas. This whole arrangement resembles a single flower.
The fruit is usually a schizocarp, sometimes a drupe. A typical schizocarp is the regma, a capsular fruit with three or more cells, each of which splits open at maturity into separate parts and then break away with explosion.
Milky juice is a characteristic of the tribe Euphorbiae of this family, but is mostly lacking in the other tribes. This milky sap is poisonous
A number of plants of the Spurge family are of considerable economic importance. Prominent plants include manioc, rubberThis article is about the material rubber, for other uses see Rubber (disambiguation Rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer which occurs as a milky emulsion (known as latex) in the sap of a number of plants but can also be produced synthetically. The ma (from Hevea brasiliensis), and the castor beanThe castor bean Ricinus communis is not a true bean, but a member of the Euphorbiaceae or spurge family. It is the source of castor oil, which has a wide variety of uses, and ricin, a poison. The name Ricinus is a Latin word for tick; the seed is so named. Some are grown as ornamentals, such as the poinsettiaPoinsettia Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Euphorbiales Family: Euphorbiaceae Genus Euphorbia Species pulcherrima Binomial nomenclature ''Euphorbia pulcherrima The poinsettia also known as the (Euphorbia pulcherrima).