Croton Linnaeus (1753: 1004)

Sodré, Rodolfo C., Berry, Paul E. & Da Silva, Marcos J., 2017, The tribe Crotoneae (Euphorbiaceae, Crotonoideae) in the Chapada dos Veadeiros, Goiás, Brazil, Phytotaxa 321 (1), pp. 1-59 : 7

2. Croton Linnaeus (1753: 1004) . Lectotype (designated by Britton 1918): Croton tiglium Linnaeus (1753: 1004) .

Subshrubs, shrubs or trees, monoecious, latex clear or colored; stems and branches with stellate-porrect trichomes, stellate multiradiate, rotate, dendritic-stellate, 2–7-radiate, or simple; stipules usually persistent, glabrous or pubescent, glanduliform or not. Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, sessile or petiolate, usually with a pair of sessile to stipitate glands on lower surface of leaf or upper surface of the petiole near base of blade, often densely pubescent on both surfaces, trichomes is similar to the one on the branches, discreetly or conspicuously discolorous; margin entire to serrate, sometimes with diminutive glands in the sinuses. Thyrses terminal or in the dichotomy of the branches, bisexual, with proximal pistillate flowers and distal staminate cymules, the cymules unisexual or bisexual with 1–3(–8) flowers arising from the same point. Staminate sepals 5, united only at the base or less often united up to half, petals 5, free, usually villous and ciliate, stamens 6–24, filaments glabrous, receptacle villous, disk 5-segmented and opposite the sepals. Pistillate flowers pedicellate or subsessile, sepals (3–)5(–8), free, unequal, subequal or equal in size, petals 5, developed, rudimentary or absent, styles 2–4-fid or rarely multifid, disk 5-lobed or 5-segmented. Capsules usually subglobose with persistent calyx; seeds compressed laterally, with a caruncle.

Pantropical genus with over 1200 species, 311 of them present in Brazil, of which 249 are endemic ( Berry et al. 2005b, BFG 2015). In this study Croton is represented by 33 species which can be recognized by the key below.