Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor Family / Spurge Family)

Euphorbiaceae (Castor/Spurge family; APG excludes Peraceae, Phyllanthaceae and Picrodendraceae from it) has 214 genera and about 5,600 species, well represented in Africa and South America. Habit: shrubs (Ricinus communis), trees (Emblica officinalis), herbs (Phyllanthus amarus), twiners (Tragia involucrata), or xerophytic cactus-like plants with flattened, succulent, leaf-like stems called phylloclades (Euphorbia) - usually with milky or watery latex. Leaf: stipulate or exstipulate, mostly simple, alternate, sometimes reduced/deciduous, palmately lobed (Ricinus) or deeply lobed (Manihot); stipules can modify into spines (E. splendens) or glandular hairs (Jatropha curcas). Inflorescence: highly variable - terminal raceme (Croton, Ricinus), catkin (Acalypha hispida), cyme (Jatropha), solitary axillary (Phyllanthus), or the family's unique cyathium (Euphorbia): a cup-like involucre of 4-5 fused sepaloid bracts holding a single central naked female flower (a tricarpellary gynoecium) surrounded by groups of naked male flowers (each a single jointed stamen), with a nectar gland on the involucre's rim - though it looks like one flower, a cyathium is actually an entire inflorescence. Flower: always unisexual, monoecious (Baliospermum) or dioecious (Bridelia), usually hypogynous. Perianth: tepals 0-5. Androecium: stamens ranging from 1 (Euphorbia) to numerous/branched (Ricinus), free or connate filaments. Gynoecium: tricarpellary (rarely bi-, tetra- or pentacarpellary), syncarpous, superior ovary, axile placentation, 3 styles each split into a feathery bilobed stigma. Fruit: capsule or schizocarp, often splitting violently into three one-seeded cocci called a regma (Ricinus). …