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What does Euphorbiaceae mean?
What does Euphorbia mean?
Is Euphorbia a genus?
How many species of Euphorbiaceae are there?
The meaning of EUPHORBIACEAE is a widely distributed family of herbs, shrubs, or trees (order Geraniales) with usually milky often poisonous juice, unisexual flowers, and a superior usually trilocular ovary and including several medicinal plants (such as those yielding castor oil and croton oil), several trees yielding caoutchouc, and the cassava.
- Overview
- Physical description
- Major genera and species
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 colorful bracts (leaflike structures...
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.
Britannica Quiz
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 (Triadica sebifera). The manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella) bears poisonous fruits, and mercury (Mercurialis) is a weed in many areas.
Euphorbia, with 1,800 to 2,250 species (including the former genera Chamaesyce, Pedilanthus, and Poinsettia), is the largest genus in the family. The whole inflorescence is highly reduced (the male flower has a single stamen, and the female flower lacks any petals) and functions as if it were a single flower. Like many members of the family, the milky sap is poisonous. Several succulent species are popular greenhouse plants, and the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is an iconic Christmas plant; the showy “petals” are modified leafy bracts of the inflorescence.
With about 1,300 species, the tropical and warm temperate Croton is characterized by distinctive pollen and stellate (starlike) or scalelike hairs. Croton tiglium produces croton oil, which is used as a strong purgative in some places. The sap of a group of South American species close to C. lechleri is called sangre de drago (“dragon’s blood”); it is used for a variety of traditional remedies, such as wound healing. The popular houseplant known as croton is the unrelated Codiaeum variegatum.
Acalypha (430 species) is pantropical. Macaranga (240 species) is native to the Paleotropics, and a number provide homes to ants, which in turn protect the plant. Jatropha (175 species) is pantropical. Mallotus (140 species) is mostly Indo-Malesian. Dalechampia (115 species) is mostly New World, some with stinging hairs. Tragia (170 species) is tropical and warm temperate, some with stinging hairs. Sapium (100 species) is largely tropical and warm temperate. The tallow tree (Triadica sebifera) yields a rubber and fat used in candles and soap and is also used as a decorative tree on city streets. Cnidosculus (93 species) is New World with stinging hairs.
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- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Dec 24, 2015 · Abstract. Ethnopharmacological relevance: The genus Euphorbia (spurges, Euphorbiaceae) is the third largest genus of flowering plants, with almost 2000 species. Its exceptional diversity of growth forms and near-cosmopolitan distribution have attracted human interest since ancient times.
- Madeleine Ernst, Olwen M. Grace, C. Haris Saslis-Lagoudakis, Niclas Nilsson, Henrik Toft Simonsen, N...
- 2015
Although some species of the Euphorbiaceae have been used in traditional medicine, as of 2019, there is no rigorous clinical evidence that euphorbia extracts are effective for treating any disease. There is evidence that euphol, a tetracyclic triterpene alcohol, and the main constituent of the sap of the medicinal plant Euphorbia tirucalli ...
Apr 27, 2023 · Euphorbiaceae is a large family of flowering plants found worldwide and encompasses over 8,000 species. Also known as the spurge family, it is divided into multiple genera. Plants belonging to the genus Euphorbia have been used in folk medicine to treat various conditions throughout ancient history.
- Shannon Binckley, Farah Zahra
- 2023/04/27
12.3.1.1 Euphorbia paralias (Euphorbiaceae) Plants of the genus Euphorbia are prolific producers of diterpenes of great biomedical interest. Euphorbia paralias , which belongs to this group, is a hardy perennial plant inhabiting sandy coasts and shingle beaches and it is native to the entire Mediterranean region.
Euphorbia is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to the type genus ), not just to members of the genus. [2]
