Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia longicruris |
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fire on the mountain, painted leaf, painted poinsettia |
wedge-leaf spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, with spreading taproots. | Herbs, annual, with taproot. |
Stems | erect or ascending, 20–100 cm, glabrous, sparsely pilose, or puberulent; branches ± straight. |
erect, usually unbranched, occasionally branched later in season, 5–25 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 0–0.5 mm; blade cuneate-spatulate to obovate, 5–15 × 2–6 mm, base broadly attenuate, margins entire, apex rounded to obtuse, mucronate, surfaces glabrous; venation 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, 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm, glabrous; glands 4, crescent-shaped to elliptic, 0.4–0.8 × 0.8–1.1 mm; horns divergent, 0.5–0.8 mm. |
Staminate flowers | 7–20. |
10–15. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 1.6 mm, 2-fid nearly entire length. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.5–0.6 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. |
ovoid-globose, 2–2.8 × 2.5–3 mm, 3-lobed; cocci rounded, smooth, glabrous; columella 1.6–2.1 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 to purple-gray or sometimes nearly black, oblong, 1.3–1.6 × 0.9–1.2 mm, strongly small-pitted; caruncle umbonate, depressed-conic, 0.5 × 0.7 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 3, each many times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts obovate, similar in size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts basally subconnate, strongly imbricate and often obscuring internodes, reniform to semiorbiculate, base cordate, margins entire, apex rounded; axillary cymose branches 0–5. |
Cyathia | peduncle 1.6–2.8 mm. |
peduncle 0.3–0.5 mm. |
2n | = 28, 56. |
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Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia longicruris |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting late spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting spring. |
Habitat | Bottomland forests, stream and river banks, bases of bluffs, fallow fields, roadsides, open disturbed areas. | Grasslands, open prairies, sites with rocky, usually calcareous soils. |
Elevation | 0–1800 m. (0–5900 ft.) | 300–800 m. (1000–2600 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]
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AR; KS; OK; TX |
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.) |
Euphorbia longicruris is quite similar to the other small, annual members of subg. Esula in the south-central United States and can best be distinguished from those species by its imbricate dichasial bracts that form little tufts of overlapping leaves at the ends of the pleiochasial branches. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 319. | FNA vol. 12, p. 304. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Poinsettia cyathophora | Tithymalus longicruris |
Name authority | Murray: Commentat. Soc. Regiae Sci. Gott. 7: 81, plate 1. (1786) | Scheele: Linnaea 22: 152. (1849) |
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