Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia mendezii |
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fire on the mountain, painted leaf, painted poinsettia |
Mendez's sandmat |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, with spreading taproots. | Herbs, annual or perennial, with slender taproot. |
Stems | erect or ascending, 20–100 cm, glabrous, sparsely pilose, or puberulent; branches ± straight. |
prostrate, often mat-forming, 8–35 cm, usually villous along margins, lower surface glabrous, upper surface usually strigillose to puberulent, rarely glabrous or glabrate. |
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. |
opposite; stipules usually distinct or connate basally, rarely completely connate, deltate, laciniate, glabrous or pilose (lower side), forming narrow deltate scale, sometimes apically 2-fid or laciniate, glabrous (upper side), 0.4–1.9 mm; petiole 0.3–1.2 mm, glabrous, pilose or villous; blade oblong to obovate, 4–12 × 2–7 mm, base asymmetric, one side attenuate, cuneate or rounded, other rounded or cordate, margins serrulate at least distally, apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous or sparsely sericeous, pilose or villous; 3-veined at base. |
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 or obconic, 0.8–1 × 0.7–0.8 mm, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely pilose toward apex; glands 4, pink, reniform, oblong or elliptic, 0.1 × 0.2–0.3 mm; appendages absent or white to pink, oblong, flabellate or forming narrow rim around edge of gland, 0.1–0.3 × 0.3–0.6 mm, distal margin usually entire, sometimes lobed. |
Staminate flowers | 7–20. |
6–15. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 1.6 mm, 2-fid nearly entire length. |
ovary usually pilose or villous with hairs concentrated along keels, rarely glabrous; styles 0.2–0.3 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. |
Capsules | green, depressed-globose to ellipsoid, 2.8–3.2 × 4–4.5 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous; columella 2–2.7 mm. |
ovoid, 1.2–1.6 × 1.2–1.4 mm, usually pilose or villous with hairs concentrated along keels, often glabrous in between, very rarely completely glabrous; columella 1–1.4 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. |
reddish brown to orange or gray-pink, narrowly ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, 0.9–1.2 × 0.5–0.6 mm, almost smooth or with 5–7 faint transverse ridges that do not pass through abaxial keel. |
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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Cyathia | peduncle 1.6–2.8 mm. |
solitary at nodes or on short, congested axillary branches; peduncle 0.9–2.5 mm. |
2n | = 28, 56. |
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Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia mendezii |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting late spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting year-round. |
Habitat | Bottomland forests, stream and river banks, bases of bluffs, fallow fields, roadsides, open disturbed areas. | Disturbed areas. |
Elevation | 0–1800 m. (0–5900 ft.) | 0–10 m. (0–0 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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FL; Mexico; Central America; West Indies; n South America [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.) |
Euphorbia mendezii is a common weed distributed widely throughout Mexico and Central America. Within the flora area the species is known only from southern Florida. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 319. | FNA vol. 12, p. 277. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Poinsettia cyathophora | Chamaesyce mendezii |
Name authority | Murray: Commentat. Soc. Regiae Sci. Gott. 7: 81, plate 1. (1786) | Boissier: Cent. Euphorb., 15. (1860) |
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