Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia serrata |
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fire on the mountain, painted leaf, painted poinsettia |
saw tooth spurge, saw-tooth or tooth or serrate spurge, serrate spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, with spreading taproots. | Herbs, perennial, with thick rootstock. |
Stems | erect or ascending, 20–100 cm, glabrous, sparsely pilose, or puberulent; branches ± straight. |
erect, branched, 10–70 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 lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, linear, or linear-lanceolate, 10–70 × 2–20 mm, base acute or obtuse, margins irregularly serrate, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces glabrous; venation inconspicuous, only 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, 2–4 × 1.2–3 mm, glabrous; glands 4–5, elliptic, ovate, or suborbiculate, 1.2–1.8 × 1.5–2.7 mm; horns absent or slightly divergent, 0–0.6 mm. |
Staminate flowers | 7–20. |
20–40. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 1.6 mm, 2-fid nearly entire length. |
ovary glabrous; styles 1–2 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. |
subovoid, 4.5–6 × 4–5 mm, 3-lobed; cocci rounded, smooth occasionally slightly puncticulate, glabrous; columella 4–4.5 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. |
grayish, cylindric, 2.5–3.1 × 1.7–2 mm, smooth or slightly dotted; caruncle subconic, lobed, 1–1.5 × 0.5–1 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 3–5, each 1–3 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts ovate-lanceolate, usually shorter and wider than distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, ovate or deltate, base obtuse to cordate, margins irregularly dentate, apex acute, or obtuse, mucronate; axillary cymose branches 0–3. |
Cyathia | peduncle 1.6–2.8 mm. |
peduncle 1–5 mm. |
2n | = 28, 56. |
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Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia serrata |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting late spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. |
Habitat | Bottomland forests, stream and river banks, bases of bluffs, fallow fields, roadsides, open disturbed areas. | Waste places, disturbed sites, roadsides, fields, pastures. |
Elevation | 0–1800 m. (0–5900 ft.) | 0–300 m. (0–1000 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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CA; Europe; Atlantic Islands (Macaronesia) [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 serrata, native to the western Mediterranean region of Europe and Macaronesia, is listed as a noxious weed by the state of California. In the flora area, it has been found in coastal counties from Sonoma to Monterey counties; attempts to eradicate it may have been successful. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 319. | FNA vol. 12, p. 309. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Poinsettia cyathophora | Galarhoeus serratus, Tithymalus serratus |
Name authority | Murray: Commentat. Soc. Regiae Sci. Gott. 7: 81, plate 1. (1786) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 459. (1753) |
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