Euphorbia helioscopia |
Euphorbia cinerascens |
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euphorbe réveille-matin, mad woman's milk, summer spurge, sun spurge, wart spurge, wartweed |
ashy sandmat |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, with taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with moderately to strongly thickened rootstock. |
Stems | erect, unbranched or branched, 5–45 cm, usually glabrous or sparsely pilose. |
prostrate to decumbent, mat-forming, 5–30 cm, appressed wooly, strigillose, or short-sericeous. |
Leaves | petiole absent or to 0.5 mm; blade obovate-spatulate, 4–40 × 2–25 mm, base cuneate, attenuate, or auriculate, margins serrulate, apex rounded, surfaces glabrous; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
opposite; stipules distinct, subulate, 0.2–0.5 mm, appressed wooly to sericeous; petiole 0.3–0.8 mm, appressed wooly to sericeous; blade ovate to elliptic, 1.5–5.5 × 1.3–4 mm, base asymmetric, obtuse to hemicordate, margins entire often reddish, apex usually obtuse, occasionally acute (young leaves), surfaces sericeous to strigillose or slightly pilose, adaxial surface often glabrous; 3-veined from base but only midvein conspicuous. |
Involucre | cupulate, 1.5–2 × 0.7–1.1 mm, glabrous; glands 4, elliptic, 0.2–0.5 × 0.5–1 mm; horns absent. |
turbinate, 0.8–1.3 × 1.2–2 mm, appressed wooly, sericeous, or strigillose; glands 4, purple-black, elliptic to oblong, 0.2–0.3 × 0.4–0.6 mm; appendages absent or reddish pink, forming narrow rim around distal margin of gland, 0–0.1 × 0–0.6 mm, distal margin entire, crenulate, or erose. |
Staminate flowers | 10–15. |
15–20. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 0.7–1 mm, 2-fid. |
ovary canescent; styles 0.3–0.5 mm, 2-fid at apex. |
Capsules | depressed-globose, 2.5–4 × 3.2–4.2 mm, clearly 3-lobed; cocci rounded, smooth, glabrous; columella 0.9–1.1 mm. |
subglobose to broadly ovoid, 1.3–1.7 × 1.5–1.8 mm, canescent; columella 1–1.3 mm. |
Seeds | dark brown to blackish, subovoid, 1.6–2.2 × 1.5–1.9 mm, reticulate; caruncle elliptic, 0.9–1.1 × 0.4–0.5 mm. |
white to pinkish or light brown, ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, 1–1.4 × 0.6–0.8 mm, smooth to rugulose or rarely with 1–2 inconspicuous transverse ridges. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches (3–)5, each 1–2 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts obovate, wider than distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, obovate or rhombic, ± oblique, base rounded, truncate, or attenuate, margins serrulate, apex rounded; axillary cymose branches 0. |
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Cyathia | peduncle 0.2–1 mm. |
solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 0.2–0.3 mm. |
2n | = 32. |
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Euphorbia helioscopia |
Euphorbia cinerascens |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting year-round (mostly spring–fall). |
Habitat | Roadsides, waste places. | Desert scrub, oak and juniper woodlands, thorn scrub, shrublands, grasslands, frequently on limestone substrates. |
Elevation | 0–1400 m. (0–4600 ft.) | 70–1400 m. (200–4600 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; CT; DC; DE; GA; ID; IL; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MT; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK; Europe; Asia; n Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in South America (Argentina, Chile)]
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TX; Mexico |
Discussion | Euphorbia helioscopia was collected once in Minnesota in the late 1800s but apparently did not become established there. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
In the flora area, Euphorbia cinerascens is found only in southern and western Texas. In Mexico, it is found from Chihuahua east to Tamaulipas, south to Guanajuato. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 303. | FNA vol. 12, p. 264. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Galarhoeus helioscopius, Tithymalus helioscopius | Chamaesyce cinerascens |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 459. (1753) | Engelmann: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 186. (1859) |
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