Euphorbiaceae
Monoecious or dioecious herbs, shrubs or trees, sometimes with milky latex. Lvs alternate or opposite, simple or compound, usually stipulate. Infl. a spike, raceme, panicle, cyme, or cluster, or fls solitary (in Euphorbia fls reduced and clustered in a cup-shaped involucre to form the flower-like cyathium). Fls unisexual. Calyx variously lobed, much reduced or 0; petals usually 0, sometimes present and rarely united. ♂ fls often with a rudimentary ovary; stamens 1-1000; filaments free or connate; anthers 2-(4)-locular, erect or inflexed in bud. ♀ fls without staminodes; ovary usually 3-locular; styles free or united; ovules 1-2 per cell, pendulous; disc often present in both sexes. Fr. usually a 3-celled capsule (regma), or rarely a drupe. Seeds often with conspicuous caruncle; endosperm copious; embryo straight.
Key
c. 300 genera, 5000-7000 spp., cosmopolitan, mainly tropical and subtropical.
The family includes many commercially important tropical trees as well as the weedy spurges better known in temperate areas. Several subtropical tree spp. are naturalised in northern N.Z., spurges are common throughout.
