Chamaesyce

Chamaesyce is a former genus of plants, all of which have now been reclassified as species of Euphorbia. Taxonomically speaking therefore, Chamaesyce has only synonym status at present. It was a large genus, with more than 500 species. Originally, species in the genus Chamaesyce had varied strikingly from each other, differing in superficial appearance and ecology, but the genus had been established on the basis of morphological characteristics of the inflorescences and associated structures. Since then however, genetic analysis has indicated that species that had been assigned to Chamaesyce are less closely related to each other than to other species of Euphorbia; the morphological aspects that had suggested that they belonged together in their own genus were the consequences of convergent evolution of these superficially similar structures.