Monographs Details:
Authority:
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
Family:
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae
Description:
Genus Description - Monoecious shrubs, subshrubs, or trees, glabrous or with simple or branched, glandular hairs, producing copious clear or whitish to yellowish, poisonous latex. Leaves alternate, simple to palmately compound, with entire, serrate, or dissected margins; petioles long; stipules small to large, glandular. Rowers in axillary or terminal, bisexual, dichasial cymes; calyx of 5 imbricate lobes; corolla of 5 discrete petals; nectary disk extrastaminal, annular to cup-shaped or lobed. Staminate flowers lateral on individual dichasia; stamens 8-15, unequal, in 2 whorls, the filaments connate to various degree, the anthers often twisted, bearing a glandular appendage at apex; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers terminal on individual dichasia; ovary ellipsoid to globose, of 3 carpels, these with a single ovule, the styles free or connate at base, simple or bifid, the stigmas thickened. Fruit a 3-lobed or globose, fleshy to dry capsule; seeds nearly bean-shaped.
Distribution and Ecology - A genus of about 175 species from tropical America, Africa, and India.
Genus Description - Monoecious shrubs, subshrubs, or trees, glabrous or with simple or branched, glandular hairs, producing copious clear or whitish to yellowish, poisonous latex. Leaves alternate, simple to palmately compound, with entire, serrate, or dissected margins; petioles long; stipules small to large, glandular. Rowers in axillary or terminal, bisexual, dichasial cymes; calyx of 5 imbricate lobes; corolla of 5 discrete petals; nectary disk extrastaminal, annular to cup-shaped or lobed. Staminate flowers lateral on individual dichasia; stamens 8-15, unequal, in 2 whorls, the filaments connate to various degree, the anthers often twisted, bearing a glandular appendage at apex; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers terminal on individual dichasia; ovary ellipsoid to globose, of 3 carpels, these with a single ovule, the styles free or connate at base, simple or bifid, the stigmas thickened. Fruit a 3-lobed or globose, fleshy to dry capsule; seeds nearly bean-shaped.
Distribution and Ecology - A genus of about 175 species from tropical America, Africa, and India.