Euphorbia crenulata |
Euphorbia cyathophora |
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Chinese caps, western wood spurge |
fire on the mountain, painted leaf, painted poinsettia |
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Habit | Herbs, usually biennial, occasionally annual, with taproot. | Herbs, annual, with spreading taproots. |
Stems | erect, sometimes decumbent at base, unbranched or branched, 12–40 cm, glabrous. |
erect or ascending, 20–100 cm, glabrous, sparsely pilose, or puberulent; branches ± straight. |
Leaves | petiole 0–2 mm; blade obovate-spatulate to oblanceolate, 8–22 × 3–10 mm, base broadly attenuate, margins entire or slightly crisped, apex obtuse to ± rounded, minutely apiculate, surfaces glabrous; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
usually alternate, occasionally opposite proximally; petiole 2–20 mm, glabrous or pilose, or often hispid abaxially near blade junction; blade linear, lanceolate, elliptic, or wider leaves pandurate and unequally 4-lobed, occasionally polymorphic on single plants, 15–250 × 4–40 mm, base acute to cuneate, margins subulately glandular-serrulate distally, or sparsely glandular and subentire, hirtellous to glabrate, flat to revolute, apex acute to cuneate, abaxial surface sparsely pilose or glabrate, adaxial surface glabrous or sparsely puberulent; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
Involucre | campanulate, 1.8–2.1 × 1.6–1.8 mm, glabrous; glands 4, crescent-shaped, 0.6–1.2 × 1.5–2.3 mm; horns slightly divergent to slightly convergent, 0.4–0.6 mm. |
campanulate, occasionally broadly so, 1.8–2.8 × 2.2–2.8 mm, glabrous; involucral lobes triangularly 3–5 lobed; gland 1, yellow-green, sessile to substipitate and narrowly to broadly attached, 1–1.4 × 0.9–1.6 mm, opening oblong (flattened without pressing), without annular rim, glabrous; appendages absent. |
Staminate flowers | 11–18. |
7–20. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 0.9–1.4 mm, 2-fid. |
ovary glabrous; styles 1.6 mm, 2-fid nearly entire length. |
Capsules | subovoid, 2.5–3 × 3.5–4 mm, 3-lobed; cocci rounded, smooth or puncticulate, glabrous; columella 1.9–2.3 mm. |
green, depressed-globose to ellipsoid, 2.8–3.2 × 4–4.5 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous; columella 2–2.7 mm. |
Seeds | cream and brown mottled, oblong-ovoid to nearly globose, 2–2.5 × 1.4–1.7 mm, usually irregularly vermiculate-ridged and large-pitted, occasionally tuberculate or nearly smooth; caruncle reniform, conic, 0.5–0.6 × 0.5–0.7 mm. |
black to ashy gray or light brown, cylindric to ovoid, rounded in cross section, 2.3–3.1 × 1.9–2.5 mm, uniformly tuberculate or tubercles arranged in median, transverse ridge in cylindric seeds; caruncle absent. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 3, each 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts obovate to orbiculate-reniform, wider than distal leaves; dichasial bracts usually connate 1/3–1/2 length (often only on one side), rarely only connate basally, triangular ovate to reniform, base truncate to perfoliate, margins erose-denticulate to subentire, apex rounded to obtuse, rarely apiculate; axillary cymose branches 0–5. |
arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches (1–)3, 1–2-branched; pleiochasial bracts 2–3(–4), often as tight, involucrate whorl, usually green with white, pink, or red at base, occasionally distal bracts wholly white, pink, or red, rarely all bracts wholly green, similar in shape and size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts often colored, similar in shape and size to distal stem leaves or highly reduced. |
Cyathia | peduncle 0–0.5 mm. |
peduncle 1.6–2.8 mm. |
2n | = 28, 56. |
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Euphorbia crenulata |
Euphorbia cyathophora |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting late spring–fall. |
Habitat | Conifer, oak, and mixed forests, coastal scrub, grasslands, barrens and outcrops, roadsides. | Bottomland forests, stream and river banks, bases of bluffs, fallow fields, roadsides, open disturbed areas. |
Elevation | 30–1800 m. (100–5900 ft.) | 0–1800 m. (0–5900 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; CO; NM; OR
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AL; AR; CA; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MD; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; NM; OH; OK; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; WI; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies [Introduced in Eurasia, Africa, Indian Ocean Islands, Pacific Islands, Australia]
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Discussion | Euphorbia crenulata is most common in the central valleys of California and southern Oregon; it occurs disjunctly in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. Previous reports from Arizona are based on misidentified specimens. Euphorbia crenulata is closely related to E. commutata. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Euphorbia cyathophora is native to the midwestern and southeastern United States, Mexico, the West Indies, and northern South America. Leaf shape can be polymorphic on individuals of this species, but not to the extent as in E. heterophylla. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 301. | FNA vol. 12, p. 319. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus crenulatus | Poinsettia cyathophora |
Name authority | Engelmann: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 192. (1859) | Murray: Commentat. Soc. Regiae Sci. Gott. 7: 81, plate 1. (1786) |
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