Euphorbia graminea |
Euphorbia inundata |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
grassleaf spurge |
Florida pineland spurge |
|||||
Habit | Herbs, usually annual, rarely perennial, with slender, rarely tuberous, taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with thickened rootstock. | ||||
Stems | erect or ascending, branched, 30–80(–110) cm, strigillose or glabrescent, sharply angled. |
erect or ascending, 15–40 cm. |
||||
Leaves | usually alternate, sometimes some opposite; stipules usually 0.2–0.5 mm, rarely rudimentary; petiole 0.4–5.9 mm, strigillose; blade ovate, elliptic, linear-elliptic, or oblong, 10–83 × 3–39 mm, base attenuate, rounded, or cuneate, margins entire, apex acute or obtuse, surfaces strigillose; venation occasionally obscure on narrow leaves, midvein conspicuous. |
petiole absent or indistinct, blade linear to linear-elliptic or lanceolate, (25–)30–60(–115) × 1.5–14(–15) mm, chartaceous, base attenuate, apex acuminate, acute, or rounded and mucronate; only midvein evident. |
||||
Involucre | campanulate or obconic, 1–1.8 × 0.8–1.7 mm, glabrous or strigillose toward rim; glands (1–)2–4, yellow to greenish, elliptic or oblong, 0.1–0.3 × 0.2–0.4 mm; appendages white to tinged purple, ovate and often hoodlike or forming narrow rim around distal margin of gland, 0.3–1.6 × 0.4–0.9 mm, entire. |
obconic or campanulate, 1.3–3.2 × 1.6–3.6 mm, lobes ovate, oblong, or nearly rectangular, 0.6–1 mm, laciniate-ciliate; glands red to greenish, oblong or nearly circular, 0.8–1 × 1.1–2 mm, distal margins crenulate-erose, undulate, or entire. |
||||
Staminate flowers | 30–40. |
20–25. |
||||
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 0.7–1 mm, 2-fid from 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
gynophore exserted 2.6–6.1 mm, calyxlike lobes triangular to subulate, 0.6–1.4 mm; styles connate 1/8 length, 1.3–2.2 mm. |
||||
Capsules | ovoid-oblate, 2.5–3 × 3–3.5 mm, glabrous; columella 1.6–1.9 mm. |
oblate-ovoid, 5.1–6.1 × 6.9–8.6 mm, 3-lobed; columella 3.9–4.7 mm. |
||||
Seeds | gray, brown, or nearly black, ovoid, circular or weakly angled in cross section, 1.5–1.7 × 1.3–1.5 mm, coarsely tuberculate with longitudinal rows of shallow pits; caruncle absent or punctiform, 0.1–0.2 mm. |
brown to blackish, ovoid-globose, circular or faintly 3- or 4-angled in cross section, 2.9–3.4 × 2.7–3 mm, smooth, base flattened or rounded, apex rounded or with inconspicuous blunt point. |
||||
Cyathia | in usually terminal, rarely axillary, dichasia, distal dichasial bracts often white; peduncle 0.4–4.5 mm (to 15 mm at first node of inflorescence), glabrous. |
peduncle 6–24 mm (often exceeding dichasial bracts). |
||||
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 2–3, 5–18 cm, 3–8 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts linear-lanceolate or narrowly ovate, 25–49 × 5–9 mm, margins entire, apex acute or acuminate; dichasial bracts ovate or lanceolate, 6–21 × 2–6 mm, margins entire, apex acute or acuminate; axillary cymose branches 1–5. |
|||||
Euphorbia graminea |
Euphorbia inundata |
|||||
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting year-round. | |||||
Habitat | Disturbed, weedy, or urban areas. | |||||
Elevation | 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
AR; CA; FL; LA; TX; Mexico; Central America; South America [Introduced in North America; introduced also in West Indies, Asia, Pacific Islands]
|
AL; FL; GA; MS |
||||
Discussion | Euphorbia graminea occurs natively from northern South America to northern Mexico. The species is a variable and taxonomically complex entity whose boundaries are not well defined and are in need of further study. Euphorbia graminea is often weedy and has recently become established in warmer areas of the southern United States, where it will likely become more common in the future. In recent years, a cultivar of E. graminea has found considerable horticultural success and is marketed under the trade name "Diamond Frost." (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Euphorbia inundata has a disjunct distribution in the southeastern United States. Allopatric, narrow-leaved populations from the west-central Florida peninsula are segregated as var. garrettii (E. L. Bridges and S. L. Orzell 2002). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 246. | FNA vol. 12, p. 314. | ||||
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Alectoroctonum | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Nummulariopsis | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Galarhoeus inundatus | |||||
Name authority | Jacquin: Select. Stirp. Amer. Hist., 151. (1763) | Torrey ex Chapman: Fl. South. U.S., 402. (1860) | ||||
Web links |