English: Spurge family.
Dutch: Wolfsmelkachtigen.
Botany: 300 genera, 5000 species; herbs, shrubs and trees; unisexual; small, highly reduced flowers, accentuated by pseudanthal states; some are like cacti with thorns; leaves alternate; latex.
Content: milky latex, with caoutchouc, rubber; diterpenes; triterpenes, triterpen esters, lanosterol, cycloartenol, 24-methylene-cycloartenol, decan acid, dodecan acid, DOPA; polyhydroxy-diterpenes, which are cancer promotors; forbol, ingenol; phenolic acids; lectins.
TaxonomyEuphorbiaceae and
Peraceae form a monophyletic group in the
Apg3 classification. Picrodendraceea and Phyllantaceae were a part of
Euphorbiaceae in the past. They are treated here as one group.
Rafflesiaceae, a parasitic plant family, is member of the
Euphorbiaceae group in the
Apg3 classification.
In the
Plant theory Rafflesiaceae is treated as separate and placed in
Subphase 7, being parasitic.
Euphorbiaceae is treated as one family with
Peraceae,
Phyllanthaceae and
Picrodendraceae.
Euphorbiaceae is placed in
Subphase 4.
EuphorbialesEuphorbiaceaeEuphorbioideaeCrotonoideaeAcalyphoideaeRafflesiaceaePeraceae