Euphorbia floridana |
Euphorbia pergamena |
|
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greater Florida spurge |
rocklands spurge, Southern Florida sandmat |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, with slender to moderately thickened rootstock. | Herbs, perennial, with moderately to strongly thickened rootstock. |
Stems | erect, 20–65 cm. |
prostrate to ascending, occasionally mat-forming, terete to slightly flattened, 5–18 cm, glabrous on lower surface, strigillose to sericeous on upper surface. |
Leaves | petiole absent; blade linear to linear-elliptic or linear-lanceolate, 30–105 × 2–4(–7) mm, chartaceous, base attenuate, rounded, or nearly truncate, apex acute; only midvein evident. |
opposite; stipules distinct, subulate, better developed on lower side of stem, 0.4–1.3 mm, glabrous or pilose; petiole 0.3–0.5 mm, puberulent, sericeous, or strigillose; blade oblong to ovate, 4–7 × 2–4 mm, base asymmetric, hemicordate, larger side sometimes amplexicaulous, margins entire or serrulate, apex obtuse, surfaces puberulent, sericeous, or strigillose; 3-veined from base, lateral veins inconspicuous. |
Involucre | campanulate or obconic, 1.6–3.3 × 1.8–3.1 mm, lobes ovate, 0.5–0.7 mm, ciliate, exceeded by glands; glands yellow-green, oblong to trapezoidal, 0.5–0.8 × 0.8–1.2 mm, distal margins deeply erose. |
campanulate, 1–1.3 × 1–1.1 mm, canescent; glands 4, pinkish, oblong or reniform, 0.2 × 0.4–0.6 mm; appendages white to pink, lunate, unequal, those of proximal glands oblique, 0.6–1 × 1.4–1.6 mm, those of distal glands symmetric, 0.3 × 0.8–0.9 mm, irregularly undulate to incised. |
Staminate flowers | 20. |
15. |
Pistillate flowers | gynophore exserted 2.9–5.3 mm, calyxlike lobes triangular, 0.3–0.7 mm; styles connate 1/3–1/4 length, 1.1–1.7 mm. |
ovary puberulent, sericeous or strigillose; styles 0.5–1 mm, 2-fid at apex. |
Capsules | oblate-ovoid, 4.6–5.5 × 8.9–9 mm, strongly 3-lobed; columella 3.4–4.2 mm. |
oblate, well exserted from involucre at maturity, 1–1.3 × 1.3–1.8 mm, puberulent, sericeous or strigillose; columella 1 mm. |
Seeds | brown to blackish, depressed-globose, circular in cross section, 2.8–3 × 3.2–3.6 mm, smooth, base flattened, with punctiform depressions, apex flattened. |
whitish to gray, ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, 0.7–0.8 × 0.5–0.6 mm, with 3–4 transverse sulci alternating with low transverse ridges. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 3–5, 3–16 cm, 3–5(–7) times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts linear-lanceolate or narrowly ovate, 19–55 × 4–12 mm, margins entire, apex acute or acuminate; dichasial bracts usually ovate, lanceolate, or oblong, rarely deltate, 8–21 × 4–14 mm, margins entire, apex acute, acuminate, or rounded with mucronate tip; axillary cymose branches 1–3(–6). |
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Cyathia | peduncle (except for that of 1st cyathium at base of pleiochasia) 2–5 mm (not exceeding dichasial bracts). |
solitary at distal nodes or at nodes of short, congested, axillary shoots; peduncle to 0.5 mm. |
Euphorbia floridana |
Euphorbia pergamena |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting year-round. |
Habitat | Xeric pine-oak sandhills, pine scrub, sandy soils. | Crevices of limestone outcrops in pinelands and pine-palm woods. |
Elevation | 20–80 m. (100–300 ft.) | 0–10 m. (0–0 ft.) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA
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FL; West Indies (Cuba, Hispaniola) |
Discussion | Euphorbia pergamena is a Florida-listed threatened species known within the flora area from only Miami-Dade and Monroe counties in extreme southern Florida. The species is often included as a subspecies of E. adenoptera (for example, D. G. Burch 1965), but here A. Herndon (1993b) is followed and it is treated as a distinct species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 314. | FNA vol. 12, p. 282. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Nummulariopsis | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Galarhoeus floridanus | Chamaesyce adenoptera subsp. pergamena, C. pergamena, E. adenoptera subsp. pergamena |
Name authority | Chapman: Fl. South. U.S., 401. (1860) | Small: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 25: 615. (1898) |
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