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The Euphorbiaceae is a large family that occurs primarily in the tropics. Cassava and rubber are important commercial products in the family and Pointsettia is an important ornamental genus. The flora of western Washington includes a few species in the genus Euphorbia. The family as a whole has milky juice, opposite leaves and separate male and female flowers, often borne on the same plant but sometimes on different plants. The flowers are borne in cup-like involucres; the male flowers are reduced to a single stamen and several male flowers are generally borne at the base of the involucre, and the single, reduced, 3-carpellary, female flower is exerted on a short stalk out of the center of the involucre.