Euphorbia
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Euphorbiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Monoecious erect herbs, shrubs, or small trees, glabrous or variously pubescent, producing abundant milky latex. Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, less often reduced to scales; stipules deciduous or persistent. Flowers produced within a cyathium, the cyathia solitary or clustered in cymules in leaf axils; cyathium cup- to bell-shaped, 2-5-toothed at apex, with (l-2-)4-5 glands, often bearing a petal-like appendage. Staminate flowers naked, few to many, consisting of 1 stamen. Pistillate flowers, solitary, central on cyathium; calyx minute or rudimentary; ovary of 3 carpels on elongate pedicel, the carpels with a solitary ovule; styles connate throughout most of their length, bifid at apex. Fruit a 3-lobed capsule with 1 seed per locule, on a long-exserted, reflexed pedicel.
Distribution and Ecology - A genus of about 1000 species with cosmopolitan distribution.