Euphorbia alta |
Euphorbia jaegeri |
|
---|---|---|
giant spurge, roughpod spurge, tall spurge, warty spurge |
orocopia mountains spurge |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual or biennial, with taproot. | Shrubs, with woody rootstock. |
Stems | erect, branched, 20–60 cm, glabrous. |
ascending, diffusely and intricately branched, 15–25 cm, usually puberulent to shortly hirsute, sometimes glabrate, bark grayish. |
Leaves | petiole 0–1 mm; blade oblong-spatulate, 20–50 × 7–18 mm, base broadly attenuate, margins serrulate, apex rounded to obtuse, surfaces glabrous, ± glaucous; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
opposite; stipules distinct or connate, subulate, 0.3–0.5 mm, puberulent; petiole 0.7–1.1 mm, puberulent to shortly hirsute; blade ovate or elliptic, 3–9 × 1.5–5 mm, base symmetric to slightly asymmetric, rounded to cuneate, margins entire, apex usually obtuse, sometimes acute, surfaces puberulent to shortly hirsute; 3-veined from base, often only midvein conspicuous. |
Involucre | narrowly campanulate, 0.8–1.1 × 1.1–1.3 mm, glabrous; glands 4, elliptic, 0.3–0.5 × 0.5–0.7 mm; horns absent. |
obconic to campanulate, 1.2–1.8 × 1.1–1.4 mm, puberulent to shortly hirsute; glands 4, yellow to pinkish, elliptic to oblong, 0.3 × 0.4–0.5 mm; appendages white to pink, 0.2–0.7 × 0.6–1.2 mm, irregularly divided from halfway to nearly base into 4–8 triangular to subulate segments, segments entire. |
Staminate flowers | 5–10. |
25–30. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 0.5–0.9 mm, 2-fid. |
ovary canescent; styles 0.3–0.4 mm, 2-fid entire length. |
Capsules | depressed-globose, 2–3 × 2.5–3.5 mm, 3-lobed; cocci rounded, papillate, papillae 0.2–0.5 mm, glabrous; columella 1.5–1.9 mm. |
oblate, 1.7–2.3 × 1.8–2.7 mm, puberulent; columella 1.4–2 mm. |
Seeds | purple-black, ovoid, 1.6–2 × 1.3–1.7 mm, reticulate and areolate; caruncle reniform, flat, 0.5 × 0.7 mm. |
tan to grayish, narrowly oblong-ovoid, ± 3–4-angled in cross section, 1.4–1.5 × 0.7–0.9 mm, irregularly dimpled or with faint transverse ridges that do not interrupt abaxial keel. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 3, 2–3 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts elliptic-oblanceolate to oblong, similar in size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, broadly ovate to orbiculate/reniform, base obtuse, margins serrulate, apex obtuse to rounded and often mucronulate; axillary cymose branches 6–20(–25). |
|
Cyathia | peduncle 0.5–1 mm. |
solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 0.5–1.7 mm. |
Euphorbia alta |
Euphorbia jaegeri |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting summer. | Flowering and fruiting fall–spring. |
Habitat | Montane pine-oak and mixed conifer forests, disturbed roadsides, logged areas. | Desert scrub, hillsides, arroyos, primarily in rock crevices. |
Elevation | 1500–3000 m. (4900–9800 ft.) | 600–900 m. (2000–3000 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; Mexico
|
CA |
Discussion | Euphorbia alta is a montane species from southern Arizona, New Mexico, and northern and central Mexico that is very similar to and sometimes difficult to distinguish from E. spathulata. Euphorbia alta tends to be a robust biennial, whereas E. spathulata is strictly annual. The most consistent characteristic to separate these two species is that the ovaries and capsules of E. alta are distinctly papillate, with the papillae rising sharply above the surface, whereas the ovaries and capsules of E. spathulata are merely verrucose, with the protuberances lower and rounded. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Euphorbia jaegeri is known only from the Orocopia Mountains of Riverside County and the Bristol and Marble Mountains of San Bernardino County. The species is one of few shrubby species of sect. Anisophyllum in the flora area. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 298. | FNA vol. 12, p. 273. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus altus | |
Name authority | Norton: N. Amer. Euphorbia, 24, plate 24. (1899) | V. W. Steinmann & J. M. André: Aliso 30: 1, figs. 1–4. (2012) |
Web links |
|