Euphorbia curtisii |
Euphorbia cyathophora |
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Curtis' spurge, Sandhills spurge |
fire on the mountain, painted leaf, painted poinsettia |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, with spreading rootstock. | Herbs, annual, with spreading taproots. |
Stems | erect or ascending, branched, solitary or few, previous year's dead stems not persistent, 20–40 cm, usually glabrous, rarely strigose to sericeous at nodes. |
erect or ascending, 20–100 cm, glabrous, sparsely pilose, or puberulent; branches ± straight. |
Leaves | alternate; stipules to 0.1 mm; petiole to (0–)1–2 mm, glabrous or strigose to sericeous; blade usually linear, occasionally elliptic, rarely ovate, proximal often greatly reduced and often scalelike, 10–30 × 1.5–6 mm, base cuneate, margins entire, occasionally sparsely ciliate, apex rounded or broadly acute, abaxial surface glabrous or sparsely strigose to sericeous, adaxial surface glabrous; venation obscure, only midvein conspicuous. |
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, 1–1.2 × 1.3–1.5(–1.7) mm, glabrous or strigose to sericeous on distal 1/2; glands 5, green, reniform, 0.3 × 0.6 mm; appendages white, semicircular, 0.3–0.4 × 0.6–0.8 mm, entire. |
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 | 20–25. |
7–20. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous or sparsely strigose to sericeous; styles 0.6–1.1 mm, 2-fid at apex to 1/2 length. |
ovary glabrous; styles 1.6 mm, 2-fid nearly entire length. |
Capsules | globose, 2.5–3.2 × 4.3–5.1 mm, glabrous or sparsely strigose to sericeous; columella 2.4–3.1 mm. |
green, depressed-globose to ellipsoid, 2.8–3.2 × 4–4.5 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous; columella 2–2.7 mm. |
Seeds | usually gray to black, occasionally brown, ovoid-globose, 2.2 × 1.8 mm, smooth; caruncle absent. |
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. |
Cyathia | in terminal pleiochasia (fertile axillary branches occasionally present); peduncle 6.5–17 mm, filiform, glabrous. |
peduncle 1.6–2.8 mm. |
Cyathial | 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. |
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2n | = 28, 56. |
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Euphorbia curtisii |
Euphorbia cyathophora |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting early spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting late spring–fall. |
Habitat | Xeric to dry oak or oak-pine scrub of sand hills, pine-oak woodlands, pine-oak savannas. | Bottomland forests, stream and river banks, bases of bluffs, fallow fields, roadsides, open disturbed areas. |
Elevation | 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.) | 0–1800 m. (0–5900 ft.) |
Distribution |
FL; GA; NC; SC
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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 curtisii is found in the Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains. (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. 245. | FNA vol. 12, p. 319. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Alectoroctonum | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. eriogonoides, Tithymalopsis curtisii, T. eriogonoides | Poinsettia cyathophora |
Name authority | Engelmann ex Chapman: Fl. South. U.S., 401. (1860) | Murray: Commentat. Soc. Regiae Sci. Gott. 7: 81, plate 1. (1786) |
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