Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia agraria |
|
---|---|---|
fire on the mountain, painted leaf, painted poinsettia |
urban spurge |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual, with spreading taproots. | Herbs, perennial, with slender, spreading rootstock. |
Stems | erect or ascending, 20–100 cm, glabrous, sparsely pilose, or puberulent; branches ± straight. |
erect or ascending, unbranched or branched, 30–90 cm, glabrous. |
Leaves | 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. |
petiole absent; blade oblong-elliptic, 20–65 × 9–20 mm, base truncate to auriculate, margins entire, apex obtuse to rounded, surfaces glabrous; venation conspicuously pinnate, midvein prominent. |
Involucre | 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. |
campanulate, 2.2–3 × 1.8–2 mm, glabrous; glands 4, crescent-shaped; 0.6–1 × 1–2 mm; horns slightly divergent to convergent, 0.1–0.2 mm. |
Staminate flowers | 7–20. |
15–20. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 1.6 mm, 2-fid nearly entire length. |
ovary glabrous; styles 1.2–2 mm, 2-fid. |
Capsules | green, depressed-globose to ellipsoid, 2.8–3.2 × 4–4.5 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous; columella 2–2.7 mm. |
globose, 2–2.8 × 2.2–2.7 mm, 3-lobed; cocci rounded, smooth except finely granulate toward abaxial line, glabrous; columella 2.1–2.7 mm. |
Seeds | 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. |
gray or whitish, ovoid-oblong, 2–2.1 × 1.2–1.3 mm, smooth; caruncle ± rounded and flattened, 0.8 × 0.6 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. |
arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 8–15, 1–2 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts similar in shape but shorter and narrower than distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, rhombic to reniform, base obtuse, margins entire, apex obtuse, mucronate; axillary cymose branches 12–23. |
Cyathia | peduncle 1.6–2.8 mm. |
peduncle 0–2 mm. |
2n | = 28, 56. |
|
Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia agraria |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting late spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. |
Habitat | Bottomland forests, stream and river banks, bases of bluffs, fallow fields, roadsides, open disturbed areas. | Grasslands, roadside banks, pastures. |
Elevation | 0–1800 m. (0–5900 ft.) | 200–1600 m. (700–5200 ft.) |
Distribution |
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]
|
KS; MT; NE; NY; PA; WA; WY; AB; SK; Europe [Introduced in North America]
|
Discussion | 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. 319. | FNA vol. 12, p. 298. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Poinsettia cyathophora | Tithymalus agrarius |
Name authority | Murray: Commentat. Soc. Regiae Sci. Gott. 7: 81, plate 1. (1786) | M. Bieberstein: Fl. Taur.-Caucas. 1: 375. (1808) |
Web links |
|