Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia theriaca |
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fire on the mountain, painted leaf, painted poinsettia |
Terlingua sandmat, Terlingua spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, with spreading taproots. | Herbs, annual, with slender taproot. | ||||
Stems | erect or ascending, 20–100 cm, glabrous, sparsely pilose, or puberulent; branches ± straight. |
prostrate to reclining, not mat-forming, 5–30 cm, glabrous. |
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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, occasionally connate basally on lower side of stem, subulate or scalelike, usually entire, occasionally 2-fid or margin sparsely ciliate, 0.4–1 mm, glabrous; petiole 0.7–1.2(–1.5) mm, glabrous; blade ovate, oblong, orbiculate, or obovate, 2–7.1 × 1–3.5 mm, base slightly asymmetric, rounded, margins entire, often revolute on drying, apex usually rounded, occasionally slightly emarginate, surfaces glabrous; venation usually obscure, only midvein conspicuous. |
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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. |
usually turbinate-campanulate to hemispheric, occasionally suburceolate, 1–1.8 × 0.9–1.4 mm, glabrous; glands 4, yellow-green to red-purple, sessile or short-stipitate, subcircular to slightly elliptic, 0.2–0.5 × 0.2–0.7 mm; appendages absent or white to pink, semilunate or forming rim at edge of gland, (0–)0.1–0.4 × (0–)0.3–0.9 mm, entire or slightly crenate. |
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Staminate flowers | 7–20. |
15–36. |
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Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 1.6 mm, 2-fid nearly entire length. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.3–0.5 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. |
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Capsules | green, depressed-globose to ellipsoid, 2.8–3.2 × 4–4.5 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous; columella 2–2.7 mm. |
broadly ovoid, 1.1–1.6 × 1.5–1.8 mm, glabrous; columella 1.2–1.5 mm. |
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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. |
whitish, reddish brown beneath coat, ovate, 4-angled in cross section, 0.8–1.2 × 0.5–0.8 mm, with (2–)3(–5) deep transverse ridges. |
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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. |
usually solitary at distal nodes, rarely clustered on short, axillary branches; peduncle 0.3–1.3 mm. |
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2n | = 28, 56. |
= 28. |
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Euphorbia cyathophora |
Euphorbia theriaca |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting late spring–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Bottomland forests, stream and river banks, bases of bluffs, fallow fields, roadsides, open disturbed areas. | |||||
Elevation | 0–1800 m. (0–5900 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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NM; TX; n Mexico
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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.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 319. | FNA vol. 12, p. 290. | ||||
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Poinsettia cyathophora | Chamaesyce theriaca | ||||
Name authority | Murray: Commentat. Soc. Regiae Sci. Gott. 7: 81, plate 1. (1786) | L. C. Wheeler: Rhodora 43: 242, plate 660, fig. A. (1941) | ||||
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