Spurges are annual, biennial or perennial herbs, woody shrubs, or trees with a caustic, poisonous milky latex. The roots are fine or thick and fleshy or tuberous. Many species are more or less succulent, thorny, or unarmed. The main stem and mostly also the side arms of the succulent species are thick and fleshy, 15 to 91 cm tall. The deciduous leaves may be opposite, alternate, or in whorls. In spurges, flowers occur in a head, called the cyathium (plural cyathia). The fruits are three- or rarely two-compartment capsules, sometimes fleshy, but almost always ripening to a woody container that then splits open, sometimes explosively. The seeds are four-angled, oval, or spherical, and some species have a caruncle. The genus has over or about 2,000 members. The genus can be found all over the world.