Pedilanthus
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.
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Family
Euphorbiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Shrubs with fleshy branches and milky juice, alternate leaves with the midrib thickened beneath (rarely leafless) , glandular stipules (if present), opposite floral leaves, and cymose terminal or axillary involucres. Involucres oblique, shoe-shaped, the tube more or less fissured superiorly and notched inferiorly at the bilabiate apex or throat, with 2 lateral and 1 median accessory lobes more or less closing the fissure, the tube bearing an appendix on the superior side of its posterior extremity. Appendix gibbous and interiorly glandular, its lip notched or 2-3-lobed and extending anteriorly above the posterior end of the fissure of the tube. Flowers pedicellate, the male numerous, ecalyculate, sometimes with linear bracteoles at the base; female single with the long style finally protruding and generally declinate from the throat of the tube; stigmas 3, connate, often separate at the apex and frequently 2-lobed. Seeds ecarunculate. [Greek, slipper-flower.] About 30 species. Type species: Euphorbia tithymaloides L.