Euphorbia graminea |
Euphorbia jaegeri |
|
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grassleaf spurge |
orocopia mountains spurge |
|
Habit | Herbs, usually annual, rarely perennial, with slender, rarely tuberous, taproot. | Shrubs, with woody rootstock. |
Stems | erect or ascending, branched, 30–80(–110) cm, strigillose or glabrescent, sharply angled. |
ascending, diffusely and intricately branched, 15–25 cm, usually puberulent to shortly hirsute, sometimes glabrate, bark grayish. |
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. |
opposite; stipules distinct or connate, subulate, 0.3–0.5 mm, puberulent; petiole 0.7–1.1 mm, puberulent to shortly hirsute; blade ovate or elliptic, 3–9 × 1.5–5 mm, base symmetric to slightly asymmetric, rounded to cuneate, margins entire, apex usually obtuse, sometimes acute, surfaces puberulent to shortly hirsute; 3-veined from base, often only midvein conspicuous. |
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 to campanulate, 1.2–1.8 × 1.1–1.4 mm, puberulent to shortly hirsute; glands 4, yellow to pinkish, elliptic to oblong, 0.3 × 0.4–0.5 mm; appendages white to pink, 0.2–0.7 × 0.6–1.2 mm, irregularly divided from halfway to nearly base into 4–8 triangular to subulate segments, segments entire. |
Staminate flowers | 30–40. |
25–30. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 0.7–1 mm, 2-fid from 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
ovary canescent; styles 0.3–0.4 mm, 2-fid entire length. |
Capsules | ovoid-oblate, 2.5–3 × 3–3.5 mm, glabrous; columella 1.6–1.9 mm. |
oblate, 1.7–2.3 × 1.8–2.7 mm, puberulent; columella 1.4–2 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. |
tan to grayish, narrowly oblong-ovoid, ± 3–4-angled in cross section, 1.4–1.5 × 0.7–0.9 mm, irregularly dimpled or with faint transverse ridges that do not interrupt abaxial keel. |
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. |
solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 0.5–1.7 mm. |
Euphorbia graminea |
Euphorbia jaegeri |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting year-round. | Flowering and fruiting fall–spring. |
Habitat | Disturbed, weedy, or urban areas. | Desert scrub, hillsides, arroyos, primarily in rock crevices. |
Elevation | 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.) | 600–900 m. (2000–3000 ft.) |
Distribution |
AR; CA; FL; LA; TX; Mexico; Central America; South America [Introduced in North America; introduced also in West Indies, Asia, Pacific Islands]
|
CA |
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.) |
Euphorbia jaegeri is known only from the Orocopia Mountains of Riverside County and the Bristol and Marble Mountains of San Bernardino County. The species is one of few shrubby species of sect. Anisophyllum in the flora area. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 246. | FNA vol. 12, p. 273. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Alectoroctonum | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Jacquin: Select. Stirp. Amer. Hist., 151. (1763) | V. W. Steinmann & J. M. André: Aliso 30: 1, figs. 1–4. (2012) |
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