Croton

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Euphorbiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Croton

  • Description

    Genus Description - Monoecious herbs, shrubs, or small trees, with stellate hairs or lepidote scales, producing a clear to orange watery latex, sometimes with fetid smell. Leaves simple and alternate, often densely hairy on lower surface, the petioles often with a pair of glands; stipules minute to foliaceous. Flowers in axillary or terminal spikes or racemes; calyx of 4-6 deeply parted sepals; corolla of 4-6 distinct petals, or wanting; nectary disk annular or dissected into glands. Staminate flowers distal on inflorescence; calyx of 4-6 sepals; stamens 10 to many, free; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers proximal on inflorescence; calyx of 5 sepals; petals usually wanting; ovary 3- lobed, of 3 uniovular carpels, the styles 3, bifid to many times divided. Fruit a 3-lobed capsule with seed per locule.

    Distribution and Ecology - A genus of about 600 species with worldwide distribution, predominantly in the tropics.