Euphorbia crenulata |
Euphorbia jaegeri |
|
---|---|---|
Chinese caps, western wood spurge |
orocopia mountains spurge |
|
Habit | Herbs, usually biennial, occasionally annual, with taproot. | Shrubs, with woody rootstock. |
Stems | erect, sometimes decumbent at base, unbranched or branched, 12–40 cm, glabrous. |
ascending, diffusely and intricately branched, 15–25 cm, usually puberulent to shortly hirsute, sometimes glabrate, bark grayish. |
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. |
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 | 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. |
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 | 11–18. |
25–30. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 0.9–1.4 mm, 2-fid. |
ovary canescent; styles 0.3–0.4 mm, 2-fid 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. |
oblate, 1.7–2.3 × 1.8–2.7 mm, puberulent; columella 1.4–2 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. |
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, 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. |
|
Cyathia | peduncle 0–0.5 mm. |
solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 0.5–1.7 mm. |
Euphorbia crenulata |
Euphorbia jaegeri |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting fall–spring. |
Habitat | Conifer, oak, and mixed forests, coastal scrub, grasslands, barrens and outcrops, roadsides. | Desert scrub, hillsides, arroyos, primarily in rock crevices. |
Elevation | 30–1800 m. (100–5900 ft.) | 600–900 m. (2000–3000 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; CO; NM; OR
|
CA |
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 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. 301. | FNA vol. 12, p. 273. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus crenulatus | |
Name authority | Engelmann: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 192. (1859) | V. W. Steinmann & J. M. André: Aliso 30: 1, figs. 1–4. (2012) |
Web links |
|