Euphorbia bilobata |
Euphorbia platysperma |
|
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black-seed spurge |
dune spurge, flat-seed spurge, flatseed sandmat |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual, with slender taproot. | Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, with slender taproot. |
Stems | erect, branched, 10–35 cm, glabrous or strigillose (especially when young and around nodes). |
prostrate, spreading and often mat-forming, 10–100 cm, glabrous. |
Leaves | opposite proximally, alternate distally; stipules 0.1–0.2 mm; petiole 1–4(–6) mm, glabrous, sericeous or strigillose; blade linear to narrowly elliptic, 8–52 × 2–7 mm, base attenuate, margins entire, ciliate-strigose, apex acute, abaxial surface sparsely strigillose to sericeous, adaxial surface usually glabrous; venation obscure, only midvein conspicuous. |
opposite; stipules usually distinct, occasionally connate basally, rarely to middle, subulate, narrowly triangular, or divided into 2–4 subulate segments, 0.5–1.1 mm, glabrous; petiole 1–3.6 mm, glabrous; blade oblong to obovate, 5–12 × 3–5 mm, base subsymmetric, cuneate to attenuate, margins entire, apex usually acute to mucronulate, rarely obtuse, surfaces glabrous; only midvein conspicuous. |
Involucre | obconic, 0.9–1.5 × 0.9–1.3 mm, strigillose to pilose; glands 5, yellow or pink, U-shaped, 0.2–0.3 × 0.4–0.5 mm; appendages greenish, white, or pink, forming narrow rim around gland, or ovate, oblong, or obovate and usually 2-fid, rarely rudimentary, 0.2–1.4 × 0.2–0.6 mm, entire. |
campanulate to obconic, 1.5–2 × 1.3–2.5 mm, glabrous; glands 4, yellowish, subcircular to oblong, 0.5–0.6 × 0.5–0.6 mm; appendages white, ovate to oblong or almost triangular, 0.3–0.6 × 0.3–0.8 mm, distal margin entire or shallowly 2–3-lobed. |
Staminate flowers | 20–25. |
45–50. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous, puberulent, strigillose, or pilose; styles 0.5–0.8 mm, 2-fid 1/3–1/2 length. |
ovary glabrous, styles 0.4–0.6 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. |
Capsules | oblate, 1.5–2.6 × 2.1–3.3 mm, glabrous or puberulent, strigillose, or pilose; columella 1.2–2.1 mm. |
ovoid to ellipsoid, 2.7–3.2 × 2.2–2.9 mm, glabrous; columella 2.6–2.8 mm. |
Seeds | brown to grayish black, narrowly ovoid, 3- or 4-angled in cross section, sometimes obscurely so, 1.3–1.9 × 1–1.4 mm, tuberculate, often with shallow depressions; caruncle absent. |
whitish, pinkish, or light brown, ellipsoid-oblong, weakly dorsiventrally compressed and semielliptic in cross section, 2.2–2.5 × 1.3–1.6 mm, with sharp linelike longitudinal ridge on adaxial side, smooth and rounded on back. |
Cyathia | solitary at distal nodes or in weakly defined cymes or dichasia, dichasial bracts and distal stem leaves wholly green; peduncle 0.5–3.6 mm, strigillose. |
solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 1.6–4.1 mm. |
2n | = 32. |
|
Euphorbia bilobata |
Euphorbia platysperma |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting year-round in response to sufficient moisture. |
Habitat | Sandy and rocky soils on slopes and canyon bottoms in pine-juniper woodlands, oak woodlands, grasslands. | Sand dunes in Sonoran Desert scrub. |
Elevation | 1400–2600 m. (4600–8500 ft.) | 60–200 m. (200–700 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora)
|
AZ; CA; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora) |
Discussion | In Texas, Euphorbia bilobata is known only from Jeff Davis County. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 243. | FNA vol. 12, p. 282. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Alectoroctonum | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Chamaesyce platysperma | |
Name authority | Engelmann: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 190. (1859) | Engelmann: in W. H. Brewer et al., Bot. California 2: 482. (1880) |
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