Description:

• Shrubs or trees, lactiferous; monoecious
• Leaves alternate, simple or peltate, deeply 3-11-palmatilobed to palmatipartite; stipules small or large, sometimes leafy
• Inflorescences racemose or paniculate, terminal or axillary in uppermost leaf axils, generally composed of 1 or more long-pedicellate basal female flowers and several short-pedicellate male flowers; bracts small or large, sometimes leafy
• Petals 0
• Male flowers: calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, often pigmented, with lobes imbricate; stamens 10 in 2 whorls, free, arising between lobes or glands of disc; pistillode small, trifid if present
• Female flowers: calyx as in male flowers; disc hypogynous; ovary 3-locular, smooth or longitudinally winged; 1 ovule per locule; styles shortly connate at base
• Fruit septicidally dehiscent into 3 bivalved cocci, smooth or longitudinally winged
• Seeds carunculate; testa crustaceous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons flat, broad
• x = 9 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• *Manihot Mill.
  • Miller: [851] (1754)
  • Radcliffe-Smith: 366 (1987)
  • Webster: 99 (1994)
  • Radcliffe-Smith: 244 (1996)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species ± 100, America
• Southern Africa: *Manihot esculenta Crantz, Cassava, with starchy, tuberous roots, cultivated in tropical areas, often occurs as escape