Euphorbia is a genus of plants in the Euphorbiaceae family.

It contains at least
2,100 species and is one of the most diverse groups of flowering plants on earth.
Many of the species are known as "spurges." They all produce a mostly white
latex which they exude when cut, and this sap is often toxic. There are many
herbaceous spurges, especially in temperate zones worldwide, but the genus is
best known for its many succulent species, some of which appear very similar to
cacti. Succulent euphorbias are most diverse in southern and eastern Africa and
Madagascar, but they also occur in tropical Asia and the Americas.
What makes a Euphorbia?
All flowers in the Euphorbiaceae are unisexual (either male or female only), and
they are often very small in size. In Euphorbia, the flowers are reduced even
more and then aggregated into an inflorescence or cluster of flowers known as a
"cyathium" (plural cyathia). This feature is present in every species of the genus
but nowhere else in the plant kingdom. Whereas most other large genera of
plants differ in features of the flowers themselves, Euphorbia varies instead in
features of the cyathium, which can show amazing modifications in different
groups within the genus.


The main defining feature of the cyathium is the floral envelope or involucre that
surrounds each group of flowers. The involucre almost always has one or more
special glands attached to it, most often on the upper rim, and these glands and
their appendages vary greatly in size and shape. There may be specialized
leaves called cyathophylls or cyathial leaves that surround the cyathium and give
an overall flower-like appearance to the whole complex inflorescence.
Inside the involucre are the flowers, usually with a number of extremely simplified
male flowers consisting of a single anther, filament, and pedicel. Generally there
is a single female flower in the center consisting of a pedicel, a three-parted
ovary, and no petals or sepals associated with it.

With this basic model of the cyathium, many modifications upon it have evolved
in the genus, as well as in the aggregation of cyathia into higher order units.
Some of the variations are described below:
1. Cyathia can differ widely in the presence of associated bracts or cyathophylls.
In other cases, such as E. pulcherrima (Poinsettia), normal leaves below the
cyathia turn color and add to the overall display of the groups of cyathia in the
center. There are also many Euphorbia species in which cyathophylls and
colored bracts are absent.


2. The number and forms of involucral glands as well as gland appendages
varies enormously as shown by these examples below.

Fused glands, u-shaped Single gland Single gland


Five glands Six glands with petaloid appendages Fused glands, ring-shaped


Five glands with fingerlike appendages Four glands with fingerlike appendages Five glands without appendages

3. Cyathia are often aggregated into more complex units (synflorescences),
usually based on an inflorescence model called a cyme or an umbel.
4. In terms of symmetry, cyathia can be essentially actinomorphic, with many
planes of symmetry, or slightly or strongly zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetrical,
with only one plane of symmetry).

Actinomorphic cyathium Zygomorphic cyathium Strongly zygomorphic cyathium