Euphorbia eriantha |
Euphorbia fendleri |
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beetle spurge |
Fendler's sandmat |
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Habit | Herbs, annual or perennial, with slender to thick, woody taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with woody, thickened taproot. |
Stems | erect to ascending, 10–75 cm, glabrous or with scattered appressed hairs (especially near nodes); branches arcuate. |
usually prostrate, decumbent, or ascending, very rarely erect, often densely clustered from top of woody crown, 5–12 cm, glabrous. |
Leaves | alternate; petiole 0.1–0.4 mm, often indistinct, glabrous or sparsely pilose to shortly sericeous; blade linear to linear-elliptic, 20–55 × 1–3 mm, base attenuate, margins entire or with 2–4 inconspicuous teeth near apex, apex acute, abaxial surface pilose to shortly sericeous, adaxial surface usually glabrous, rarely pilose to shortly sericeous; only midvein conspicuous. |
usually opposite, rarely whorled; stipules distinct, narrowly linear, 0.5–1 mm, glabrous; petiole 0.5–1 mm, glabrous; blade usually orbiculate to ovate, rarely almost lanceolate, 3–8 × 2.5–7 mm, base slightly asymmetric, slightly cordate to rounded or obtuse, margins entire, apex rounded to obtuse, surfaces glabrous; obscurely 3–5-veined from base, only midvein conspicuous. |
Involucre | obconic, 2.1–2.6 × 1.3–2 mm, canescent; involucral lobes triangular, obscured by hairs; glands (2–)4–5, green to maroon, color often obscured by hairs, sessile and broadly attached, 0.5–0.6 × 0.5–0.6 mm, opening oblong to nearly circular, densely canescent; appendages petaloid, whitish, hoodlike, incurved and covering glands, 0.5–1 × 0.5–0.8 mm, divided into 5–12 fringed, subulate segments, densely canescent. |
campanulate to turbinate or broadly cupulate, 1.1–1.7 × 1.2–1.8 mm, glabrous; glands 4, yellow-green to reddish, elliptic to oblong, 0.2–0.5 × 0.4–0.9 mm; appendages absent or white, rarely pink, often unequal, lunate to flabellate or sometimes forming crenate margin along gland, (0–)0.1–0.6 × (0–)0.5–1.5 mm, distal margin entire or toothed. |
Staminate flowers | 20–25. |
25–35. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary canescent; styles 0.9–1.5 mm, unbranched. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.3–0.4 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. |
Capsules | oblong to ovoid, 4.4–4.9 × 3.5–4.1 mm, canescent (often with interspersed glabrescent patches); columella 3.5–3.9 mm. |
depressed-globose, 2–2.4 × 2.2–2.5 mm, glabrous; columella 1.7–2.1 mm. |
Seeds | mottled black and gray or light brown, oblong or slightly ovoid, dorsiventrally compressed in cross section, 2.8–4.1 × 2–2.4 mm, irregularly pitted and tuberculate; caruncle 0.4–0.8 × 0.6–1.1 mm. |
white, ovoid-pyramidal, prominently 4-angled in cross section, 1.7–2 × 1–1.2 mm, smooth to slightly wrinkled. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal cymose branches 1, 1–2-branched; pleiochasial bracts 2–3, opposite or whorled, wholly green, similar in shape and size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts similar in shape to distal leaves or often highly reduced. |
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Cyathia | peduncle 1–1.9 mm. |
solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 0.7–1.2 mm. |
2n | = 28. |
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Euphorbia eriantha |
Euphorbia fendleri |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting year-round in response to sufficient rainfall. | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. |
Habitat | Desert scrub on rocky slopes and along washes. | Mountain slopes, desert scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands, hills, canyons, grasslands, washes, roadsides, dry crevices in limestone, often in gravel and sand. |
Elevation | 60–800 m. (200–2600 ft.) | 500–2600 m. (1600–8500 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NM; TX; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Sonora)
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AZ; CA; CO; KS; NE; NM; NV; OK; SD; TX; UT; WY; Mexico (Coahuila)
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Discussion | Euphorbia fendleri is similar to E. chaetocalyx and may sometimes be confused with that species. Its prostrate to decumbent or ascending stems and small, ovate to orbiculate leaves distinguish it from E. chaetocalyx. Some authors have used the presence or absence and shape of the involucral gland appendages to help separate E. fendleri from E. chaetocalyx, but those characters appear highly variable and of little taxonomic utility; somewhat intermediate individuals occur in western Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 321. | FNA vol. 12, p. 267. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Chamaesyce fendleri | |
Name authority | Bentham: Bot. Voy. Sulphur, 51. (1844) | Torrey & A. Gray: in War Department [U.S.], Pacif. Railr. Rep. 2(4): 175. (1857) |
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