edgepedia

Euphorbiaceae and allies

17 articles

Acalypha

Acalypha (copperleaf) is a pantropical genus of about 432 accepted species in Euphorbiaceae, described by Linnaeus in 1753, with 8-stamen male flowers, fringed styles, and medicinal and ornamental species such as A. hispida.

Acalypha indica

Acalypha indica L. (Indian acalypha, Indian copperleaf, kuppa meni) is an annual Euphorbiaceae herb native from Eritrea to South Africa and Arabia to tropical Asia, a medicinal weed whose ingestion can cause hemolysis and methemoglobinemia.

Cnidoscolus

Cnidoscolus (spurge nettle, chaya) is an American Euphorbiaceae genus of about 93–99 stinging-haired species centered in Mexico and Brazil, used in folk medicine and as the leafy vegetable chaya, which must be boiled to remove cyanogenic glycosides.

Croton lechleri

Croton lechleri (sangre de grado, dragon's blood) is a South American Euphorbiaceae tree whose red latex yields crofelemer (Mytesi), an FDA-approved antidiarrheal for HIV/AIDS patients.

Euphorbia antisyphilitica

Euphorbia antisyphilitica, commonly known as candelilla, is a semisucculent shrub of the spurge family native to the southern United States and Mexico and the source of candelilla wax.

Euphorbia heterophylla

Euphorbia heterophylla (wild poinsettia, Mexican fireplant, milkweed) is an annual latex-bearing Euphorbiaceae herb native to tropical America, now a pantropical soybean and maize weed with documented ALS, glyphosate, and PPO herbicide resistance.

Euphorbia hirta

Euphorbia hirta (asthma plant, tawa-tawa), an annual Euphorbiaceae herb native to tropical America, used in traditional medicine for asthma, diarrhea, and dengue; pharmacology remains preclinical.

Garcia

Garcia (Vahl ex Rohr, 1792) is a two-species genus of Euphorbiaceae shrubs and trees native from Mexico to Brazil, including Garcia nutans (false tungoiltree), whose oil-rich seeds are used medicinally and studied as a drying oil.

Hevea

Hevea is a genus of ten Euphorbiaceae tree species native to South Tropical America; Hevea brasiliensis, the rubber tree, supplies all commercial natural rubber, used mainly in tires, with guayule and dandelion as alternatives.

Macaranga

Macaranga (Thouars, 1806) is a genus of about 300 dioecious Euphorbiaceae trees and shrubs of the Old World tropics, sister to Mallotus, with 3-4-locellate anthers, hollow-twig ant-plant symbioses, and pioneer secondary-forest ecology.

Manihot

Manihot is a genus of about 140 species of latex-producing shrubs and trees in the spurge family, native from the southern United States to northwestern Argentina.

Mercurialis

Mercurialis (annual mercury, dog's mercury) is a genus of about 10 dioecious herbaceous Euphorbiaceae species native from Macaronesia and Europe to the Himalaya, type species M. annua, used in traditional medicine but toxic when fresh.

Mercurialis perennis

Mercurialis perennis, dog's mercury, a dioecious clonal perennial herb of European woodlands and ancient-woodland indicator; spreads mainly by rhizomes, toxic, pH 4.3–8.5, common in Britain.

Phyllanthaceae

Phyllanthaceae Martinov, the leaf-flower family, is a pantropical family of about 60 genera and 2,000 species in Malpighiales, segregated from Euphorbiaceae sensu lato since APG II (2003), with two ovules per locule, no latex, and Phyllanthus as its largest genus.

Phyllanthus amarus

Phyllanthus amarus (Bhumyamalaki, stone breaker) is a pantropical annual herb, native to the Americas, used in Ayurveda for liver disorders; marker lignans phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin; often confused with P. niruri; Cochrane finds no convincing HBV benefit.

Sapium

Sapium is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae, with about 27 accepted species of monoecious trees and shrubs native to tropical and subtropical America.

Triadica

Triadica Lour. (Euphorbiaceae), a three-species Asian tree genus including Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera), source of vegetable tallow and stillingia oil and invasive in the southeastern United States.