Euphorbiaceae

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Euphorbiaceae A huge family, mostly of trees and shrubs but with a few herbs, a minority of which have latex. The leaves are simple, usually with stipules. The flowers are usually tiny and unisexual, with petals usually absent, and the ovary having 3 chambers, each with 2 pendulous ovules. The fruit is typically a 3-lobed woody capsule. The seeds sometimes have a fleshy jacket. There are 326 genera, with about 7750 species, and they are cosmopolitan in distribution.