Euphorbia exstipulata |
Euphorbia telephioides |
|
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square-seed spurge, squareseed or Clark Mountain spurge |
telephus spurge |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual, with slender taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with thickened rootstock. |
Stems | erect, 5–26 cm, uniformly puberulent to hispidulous or glabrous; branches arcuate. |
erect or ascending, 20–30 cm. |
Leaves | opposite; petiole 1–3 mm, often indistinct, glabrous or puberulent; blade linear to narrowly elliptic or ovate, 14–42 × 3–28 mm, base attenuate, margins coarsely serrate, occasionally revolute, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surface sparsely hispidulous to strigillose, adaxial surface glabrous; midvein conspicuous. |
petiole usually absent or indistinct, occasionally to 5.5 mm, blade elliptic or obovate, 31–60 × 7–32 mm, thick and fleshy, base attenuate or cuneate, apex acute, obtuse, or mucronate; venation pinnate with 8–13 lateral veins, these sometimes obscure and only midvein evident. |
Involucre | turbinate to campanulate, 1.1–1.5 × 1–1.3 mm, glabrous, pilose or puberulent; involucral lobes divided into several linear lobes; glands 4(–5), yellow to pink, sessile and broadly attached, 0.2 × 0.3–0.4 mm, opening oblong to nearly circular, glabrous; appendages usually petaloid, white to pink, ovate to trapezoidal, occasionally absent, not incurved and covering glands, 0.2–0.4 × 0.3–0.8 mm, entire, undulate, or conspicuously divided into triangular segments, glabrous. |
campanulate, 1.3–2.3 × 1.6–2.5 mm, lobes ovate to oblong, 0.5–0.7 mm, ciliate; glands purple-red, oblong to trapezoidal, 0.5–0.7 × 0.8–1.2 mm, distal margins entire or crenulate. |
Staminate flowers | 10–12. |
25–30. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary puberulent on keels, styles 0.8–1.1 mm, 2-fid 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
gynophore exserted 1.9–3.2 mm, calyxlike lobes triangular, 0.2–0.7 mm; styles connate 1/4 length, 1.3–1.5 mm. |
Capsules | broadly depressed-oblong to ovoid, 2.7–3.3 × 3.1–3.9 mm, puberulent (with appressed hairs usually concentrated on keels); columella 1.9–2.5 mm. |
ovoid-oblate, 5.2–5.6 × 6.6–8.3 mm, 3-lobed; columella 3.9–4.1 mm. |
Seeds | white to gray or light brown, ovoid, bluntly 4-angled in cross section, 1.9–2.5 × 1.4–1.7 mm, tuberculate, often with 2 transverse ridges; caruncle 0.1 × 0.2 mm. |
blackish to dark brown, ovoid to globose-ovoid, circular in cross section, 3.2–3.5 × 2.6–3.1 mm, smooth, base rounded to flattened, apex rounded, occasionally with low point. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal cymose or dichasial branches usually 1–2, occasionally reduced to monochasia, 1–2-branched; pleiochasial bracts 2–4, often whorled, wholly green or paler green at base, similar in shape and size to distal leaves or slightly narrower; dichasial bracts similar in shape to distal leaves but smaller or highly reduced. |
arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches (2–)3, 5–13 cm, 3–7 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts ovate to oblong, 17–31 × 8–15 mm, margins entire, apex acute or obtuse; dichasial bracts ovate, 5–19 × 3–9 mm, margins entire, apex acute or obtuse; axillary cymose branches 1–5. |
Cyathia | peduncle 1–1.9 mm. |
peduncle 3–9.2 mm (often exceeding subcyathial leaves). |
Euphorbia exstipulata |
Euphorbia telephioides |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting summer–fall. | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. |
Habitat | Desert scrub, grasslands, mesquite savannas, oak and oak-juniper woodlands. | Scrubby pine flatwoods, grasslands, disturbed areas, often in sandy soils. |
Elevation | 800–2000 m. (2600–6600 ft.) | 0–20 m. (0–100 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NM; TX; UT; WY; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Zacatecas)
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FL |
Discussion | Euphorbia exstipulata is native from Texas to California and northern Mexico. The species was found once in the late nineteenth century in Wyoming but has not been re-collected there. Broad-leaved plants have been segregated as var. lata, but the variation in leaf shape is continuous and no varieties are formally recognized here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Euphorbia telephioides, federally listed as threatened, is known only from Bay, Franklin, and Gulf counties in the Apalachicola region of the east-central Florida panhandle. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 322. | FNA vol. 12, p. 316. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Nummulariopsis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. exstipulata var. lata | Galarhoeus telephioides |
Name authority | Engelmann: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 189. (1859) | Chapman: Fl. South. U.S., 402. (1860) |
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