Sapium
Genus of flowering plants
Sapium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is widespread across most of Latin America and the West Indies. Many Old World species were formerly included in the genus, but recent authors have redistributed all the Old World species into other genera.
Species are known commonly as milktrees.
01Description
These are shrubs and trees. They produce latex. The leaves are alternately arranged and smooth-edged or toothed. They are monoecious, often with spikelike or raceme-shaped inflorescences that have several male flowers, plus a few female flowers near the base. The male flowers have 2 to 4 stamens. The female flowers have 2 to 4 styles which are sometimes coiled. The flowers lack petals. The fruit has 2 to 4 lobes and may split open or not.
- Species
- Sapium adenodon - Cuba
- Sapium allenii - Costa Rica
- Sapium argutum - Fr Guiana, Suriname, Amapá, Fernando de Noronha
- Sapium ciliatum - Fr Guiana, Suriname, Pará
- Sapium cuneatum - Jamaica
- Sapium daphnoides - Cuba, Hispaniola
- Sapium glandulosum - Mexico, West Indies, Central + S America to Uruguay
- Sapium haematospermum - Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, N Argentina, Uruguay
- Sapium haitiense - Massif de la Hotte, Haiti
- Sapium jenmannii - Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, NW Brazil; naturalised in Trinidad
- Sapium lateriflorum - C + S Mexico, Central America
- Sapium laurifolium - Chiapas, Greater Antilles, Central America, NW South America
- Sapium laurocerasus - Puerto Rico
- Sapium leucogynum - Cuba
- Sapium macrocarpum - Mexico, Central America
- Sapium marmieri - Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, NW Brazil
- Sapium obovatum - Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay
- Sapium pachystachys - Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama
- Sapium pallidum - Bahia, Minas Gerais
- Sapium parvifolium - Cuba
- Sapium paucinervium - NE South America
- Sapium sellowianum - Minas Gerais, São Paulo
- Sapium stylare - Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador
02Toxicity
The milky sap of Sapium biloculare is poisonous if it comes into contact with the eyes, mucous membranes, stomach or bloodstream. It was used in arrow poison and to stupefy fish.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Sapium”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Sapium glandulosum.jpg by Alex Popovkin, Bahia, Brazil, CC BY 2.0
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