Euphorbiaceae

dog's mercury

Euphorbiaceae, spurge family of flowering plants (order Malpighiales), containing some 6,745 species in 218 genera. Many members are important food sources. Others are useful for their waxes and oils and as a source of medicinal drugs; dangerous for their poisonous fruits, leaves, or sap; or attractive for their colourful bracts (leaflike structures located just below flower clusters) or unusual forms. Although species of the family grow throughout the world, except in cold alpine or arctic regions, most of them are found in temperate or tropical regions. The family consists of annual and perennial herbs and woody shrubs or trees, as well as a few climbers.

tread-softly

Flowers are of one sex, and male and female flowers are usually borne on the same plant. Petals are rarely present. Flowers of the largest genus, Euphorbia, are in cup-shaped clusters called cyathia, each of which seems to be a single female flower but actually consists of a single pistil surrounded by several male flowers, each of which has a single stamen. These clusters of reduced flowers are enclosed by an involucre (whorl) of bracts (modified leaves) that resembles a corolla, or whorl of flower petals. Male flowers of the other genera have one to many stamens, free or joined. Female flowers have three-chambered ovaries that are superior (that is, above, not enclosed by, other flower parts). There are as many styles as there are ovary cavities. The fruit is a three-chambered capsule. Leaves are usually simple and are alternate (or, rarely, opposite or whorled) in arrangement along the stems. The stems of many species contain a milky latex.

euphorbia

Members of the family known for beauty or usefulness include Euphorbia, commonly called spurge, which comprises a wide range of succulent plants, from lawn weeds to cactuslike plants and poinsettias; ornamentals such as Codiaeum, sandbox tree (Hura), copperleaf (Acalypha), Phyllanthus, redbird cactus (Pedilanthus), and Jatropha; and economically important plants such as castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis), croton (Croton tiglium), Omphalea, cassava (Manihot esculenta), rubber (Hevea), tung tree (Aleurites; a source of candlenut oil), and tallow tree (Sapium). The manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella) bears poisonous fruits, and mercury (Mercurialis) is a weed in many areas.