Malpighiales

Flax

Flax (Linum usitatissimum, from wild L. bienne) is a founder crop grown for linen fibre and linseed. Fibre types are tall and unbranched, oil types short and branched; seeds hold 40-45% oil, over 50% linolenic acid, and flax is the richest known lignan source.

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.

Garcinia

Garcinia (Clusiaceae, Malpighiales) is a pantropical genus of latex-bearing dioecious trees and shrubs, first published by Linnaeus in 1753, with hundreds of species including the mangosteen, kokum, and gamboge-yielding plants.

Garcinia indica

Garcinia indica (kokum), Western Ghats endemic tree of Clusiaceae; dried rind used as souring agent, seeds yield kokum butter; contains hydroxycitric acid and garcinol; IUCN vulnerable.

Garcinia kola

Garcinia kola (bitter kola, false kola) is a Clusiaceae tree of West and Central Africa whose resin-rich seeds are chewed and used in folk medicine; its compounds show animal-model pharmacology but no confirmed human clinical efficacy.

Grape

Grape, fruit of Vitis vinifera (grapevine), a climbing vine eaten fresh, dried as raisins, or made into wine and juice; 77.7 million t of fresh grapes in 2024, led by China, Italy, and the USA, with Near East domestication origin.

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.

Hura crepitans

Hura crepitans, the sandbox tree or jabillo, is a spiny Euphorbiaceae tree native to tropical America with toxic sap and explosive fruit capsules that launch seeds at about 43 m/s up to 45 m.

Hydnocarpus kurzii

Hydnocarpus kurzii, commonly called chaulmoogra, is a dioecious evergreen tree native from Assam to Peninsular Malaysia whose seed oil was a standard historical treatment for leprosy.

Hypericaceae

Hypericaceae, the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae Juss., 1789), is a Malpighiales family of herbs and shrubs with gland-dotted leaves; its dominant genus Hypericum holds 521 species, and sister family is Podostemaceae.

Hypericum

Hypericum (St. John's worts), genus of Hypericaceae with about 500 yellow-flowered species of herbs and shrubs, cosmopolitan mainly in temperate regions; includes medicinal H. perforatum and invasive weeds.

Hypericum perforatum

Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort, Klamath weed) is a perennial Hypericaceae herb native from Europe to China and NW Africa, used for mild to moderate depression; extracts show efficacy near standard antidepressants but induce CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein, causing major drug interactions.

Jatropha

Jatropha, a Euphorbiaceae genus of about 150 tropical species including the physic nut (Jatropha curcas), a toxic-seeded oil crop promoted for biodiesel whose large plantations proved barely financially viable.

Jatropha curcas

Jatropha curcas, physic nut or piñón de purga, a toxic Euphorbiaceae shrub native from Mexico to tropical America, grown as hedges and promoted as a biodiesel feedstock; seeds contain phorbol esters and curcin, making the oil non-edible.

Licania

Licania Aubl. is a Neotropical tree genus of Chrysobalanaceae, apetalous flowers, ovary at receptacle base, about 100 species from Mexico to southeastern Brazil after the 2016 split of the former polyphyletic 214-species genus into eight genera.

Linaceae

Linaceae, the flax family, is a cosmopolitan family of about 9 genera and 280 species in the order Malpighiales, including Linum, the source of linen and linseed oil.

Linum

Linum (flax genus), Linaceae, a genus of about 215 accepted species of herbs with showy blue, yellow, pink, red, or white flowers; includes cultivated flax Linum usitatissimum, source of linen and linseed oil.

Lophira

Lophira Banks ex C.F.Gaertn. is a genus of two African tree species in the Ochnaceae family, native from western tropical Africa to Uganda, first published in 1805.

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.

Malpighiaceae

Malpighiaceae (Barbados cherry family), a Malpighiales family of trees, shrubs, and lianas; 72 genera, 1,499 species, mostly Neotropical; oil-secreting sepals pollinated by oil-collecting bees; 2024 monophyletic classification.

Malpighiales

Malpighiales is a large order of flowering plants (about 16,000 species, 36-42 families) in the rosid fabids, including Euphorbiaceae, Salicaceae, Malpighiaceae, and Rafflesiaceae; its deep phylogeny, long unresolved, was clarified by plastid phylogenomics.

Manchineel

Manchineel (Hippomane mancinella), also called beach apple or manzanilla de la muerte, is a highly toxic Euphorbiaceae tree of Caribbean and Central American coasts; sap, fruit, and even rainwater from its canopy cause blistering dermatitis and poisoning.