Q.(a) Write any five economic importance of family Euphorbiaceae. OR

Family Euphorbiaceae supplies economically valuable rubber, oil, food, medicine, and ornamental plants, illustrated by well-known genera such as Hevea, Ricinus, Manihot, Phyllanthus, and Euphorbia/Croton.

Family Euphorbiaceae (the spurge family) is a large dicot family with diverse economically important members:

1. Rubber — Hevea brasiliensis (the Para rubber tree) is the primary commercial source of natural rubber, obtained by tapping the latex from its bark; this rubber is used to manufacture tyres and countless other rubber products.

2. Oil — Ricinus communis (castor) seeds yield castor oil, an important non-edible oil used in medicine (as a laxative), as a lubricant, and in the manufacture of soaps, paints, and cosmetics.

3. Food — Manihot esculenta (tapioca/cassava) produces starchy tuberous roots that are an important staple food/carbohydrate source in many tropical regions, and are processed into tapioca pearls/starch.

4. Medicine — Phyllanthus emblica (amla/Indian gooseberry) produces a fruit rich in Vitamin C, widely used in traditional (Ayurvedic) medicine and in food preparations/preserves.

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Ricinus communis (castor), of family Euphorbiaceae, is a monoecious plant bearing separate, petal-less male and female flowers on the same raceme, with the male flowers having numerous branched stamens and the female flowers a tricarpellary, trilocular superior ovary.

Floral characters of Ricinus communis (Castor, family Euphorbiaceae):

• Habit and inflorescence: Ricinus is monoecious (male and female flowers borne separately but on the same plant), with both flower types unisexual, arranged together on a raceme (often appearing as a panicle), with male flowers positioned toward the base and female flowers toward the top of the inflorescence axis.
• Symmetry: flowers are actinomorphic (radially symmetric).
• Perianth: the calyx has 3 to 5 sepals, valvate in aestivation; a corolla (petals) is absent in both male and female flowers.
• Male flower: androecium consists of numerous stamens (polyandrous) with branched filaments, bearing many anthers — an adaptation that produces abundant pollen for wind pollination; the gynoecium is absent (since the flower is unisexual/male).
• Female flower: androecium is absent; the gynoecium is tricarpellary, syncarpous (carpels fused), with a superior ovary that is trilocular (three chambers), each locule containing a single ovule attached by axile placentation. The ovary surface is often covered with soft spines. The style is short, and it divides into three, each further bifid (so appearing 6-branched), bright-red, feathery stigmas that catch airborne pollen.
• Fruit: a spiny, three-lobed capsule (regma) that splits explosively at maturity to disperse the three seeds, each rich in castor oil. …