Members of the family Euphorbiaceae comprise a diverse and economically important group of tropical plants (including the rubber tree plant). Drs. Michael Huft and Grady Webster have organized an international gathering of specialists on the group in order to work toward a consensus of the family's classification. This three-day conference at the Missouri Botanical Garden will include many younger investigators from Central and South America, Europe, and Asia. This will be their first opportunity to gather to discuss their own research, and the research priorities of the family. Dr. Webster's 1975 classification of the family will be analyzed from the different perspectives of the participants (secondary chemistry, cytology, pollination biology, and morphology). The proposed symposium will set the stage for a generation of collaborative international research on an economically important group of tropical plants. The classification that will emerge will be of value to a diverse array of ecologists, conservation biologists, and economic botanists.