Euphorbia florida |
Euphorbia radians |
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Chiricahua Mountain sandmat |
sun spurge |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual, with slender taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with moniliform tuberous rootstock. |
Stems | erect, 15–60 cm, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent. |
erect, 5–20(–30) cm, usually glabrous, occasionally puberulent; branches ± straight. |
Leaves | opposite; stipules distinct, divided into 3–4 subulate-filiform divisions, 0.4–1.6 mm, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent; petiole 0.5–2.5 mm, glabrous; blade usually linear, rarely to narrowly elliptic, 10–40(–60) × 0.5–2.5 mm, base symmetric, attenuate, margins serrulate, often revolute, apex acute, surfaces usually glabrous, rarely puberulent; obscurely pinnately veined. |
alternate; petiole 0–2 mm, glabrous or strigose; blade linear-lanceolate to ovate or broadly elliptic, 25–50 × 3–20 mm, unlobed, base rounded (tapered to petiole), margins with few glandular teeth, strigillose, flat to revolute, apex acute, abaxial surface coarsely strigose, adaxial surface strigose-hirsute; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
Involucre | obconic, 1.7–2.4 × 1.5–2.1 mm, glabrous; glands 4, greenish yellow to slightly pink, circular to oblong, 0.4–0.5 × 0.4–0.6 mm; appendages white to pink, obovoid, circular, flabellate, or oblong, 0.8–2.9 × 1–2.8 mm, distal margin entire. |
broadly globose-cupulate, 1.7–2.1 × 2.2–2.5 mm, glabrous or puberulent; involucral lobes divided into triangular segments; glands 1–4(–5), white, sessile and broadly attached, 1.1 × 1.4 mm, opening oblong, glabrous; appendages absent. |
Staminate flowers | 25–35. |
20–25. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 0.8–1.4 mm, 2-fid entire length. |
ovary glabrous or puberulent, styles 3–4 mm, 2-fid 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
Capsules | oblate, 2.2–2.5 × 2.7–3.1 mm, glabrous; columella 1.8–2.1 mm. |
depressed-globose, 3.8–5 × 4–5 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous or puberulent; columella 3.6–4.5 mm. |
Seeds | light gray to light brown, ovoid, slightly 4-angled in cross section, 1.6–2 × 1.3–1.7 mm, with 2 or 3 well-developed transverse ridges. |
white, mottled brown to gray, ellipsoid, rounded in cross section, 4–4.6 × 2.4–3.2 mm, smoothly and broadly pitted or grooved; caruncle 0.1 mm. |
Cyathia | solitary at nodes or in small, cymose clusters at branch tips; peduncle 1.2–8.1 mm. |
peduncle 2–5.5 mm. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches usually 3, occasionally reduced to congested cyme, 1–2-branched (often highly condensed); pleiochasial bracts 6–8(–10), as tight involucrate whorl, wholly white to pale pink or red, usually narrower than distal leaves; dichasial bracts linear and highly reduced. |
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Euphorbia florida |
Euphorbia radians |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting summer–late fall. | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. |
Habitat | Sandy flats, gravelly washes, rocky hillsides, talus slopes, desert scrub, desert grasslands, mesquite woodlands, rarely oak woodlands. | Pinyon-juniper woodlands, oak savannas, desert grasslands and scrub. |
Elevation | 600–1300 m. (2000–4300 ft.) | 700–2500 m. (2300–8200 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; Mexico (Sinaloa, Sonora)
|
AZ; TX; Mexico
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Discussion | Euphorbia florida is known in the flora area from Coconino County south to the Mexican border (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Euphorbia radians is widely distributed but scattered from the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts south to Oaxaca in Mexico. The species is distinct among species in sect. Poinsettia in the flora area in its precocious habit, often flowering before the leaves emerge. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 267. | FNA vol. 12, p. 324. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Chamaesyce florida | Poinsettia radians |
Name authority | Engelmann: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 189. (1859) | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 8. (1839) |
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