Euphorbia heterophylla |
Euphorbia perennans |
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Mexican fireplant, painted euphorbia |
perennial sandmat, Terlingua spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, with taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with strongly thickened, woody rootstock. |
Stems | erect-ascending, 20–100 cm, sparsely pilose to villous; branches ± straight. |
erect, 7–45 cm, glabrous. |
Leaves | usually alternate, occasionally opposite proximally; petiole 10–50 mm, pilose; blade narrowly lanceolate to elliptic or broadly obovate (then usually pandurate and 4-lobed), often polymorphic on single plants, 30–200 × 20–140 mm, base acute, margins sparsely glandular-serrulate, hirtellous, flat, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surface sparsely appressed-pilose, adaxial surface sparsely pilosulous to glabrate; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
opposite; stipules distinct, linear-filiform in (1–)2(–3) segments, 0.3–0.4 mm, glabrous; petiole 0.8–2 mm, glabrous; blade ovate or orbiculate-deltate to reniform-deltate, 5–17 × 4–16 mm midstem leaves largest, base symmetric, cuneate, rounded to cordate, margins entire, apex acute to rounded, surfaces glabrous, often glaucous; 3-veined from base, only midvein conspicuous. |
Involucre | usually campanulate, occasionally nearly hemispheric, 1.5–1.9 × 1.2–1.8 mm, glabrous; involucral lobes divided into several linear, smooth lobes; gland 1, yellow-green, stipitate, clavate, 1–1.4 × 1–1.2 mm, opening circular (occasionally flattened from pressing), with annular rim, glabrous; appendages absent. |
broadly-campanulate to hemispheric, 1.7–2.2 × 1.5–2.7 mm, glabrous; glands 4, green to yellow-green, elliptic to oblong, folded longitudinally, 0.3–0.5 × 0.7–1.4 mm; appendages absent. |
Staminate flowers | 8–15. |
35–45. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous or puberulent; styles 0.8–1.3 mm, 2-fid 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.7–0.9 mm, 2-fid nearly entire length. |
Capsules | broadly ovoid, 2.8–3.8 × 4–5.3 mm, 3-lobed, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely puberulent; columella 2.1–2.8 mm. |
subglobose to broadly ovoid, 2.8–3.3 × 2.8–3.4 mm, glabrous; columella 2.2–2.7 mm. |
Seeds | brown-gray to ashy gray, broadly deltoid, 2.4–2.8 × 1.9–2.4 mm, angular in cross section, dorsal face strongly acute-carinate, tuberculate, with broad rounded tubercles in 2 rows; caruncle 0.1 mm. |
white to light brown, ovoid, 3–4-angled in cross section, 2–2.4 × 1–1.2 mm, smooth to faintly transverse-wrinkled. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal dichasial branches usually 2, occasionally reduced to congested cyme, 1–2-branched (often congested and difficult to discern); pleiochasial bracts 2–4, often whorled, wholly green or paler green at base, similar in shape and size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts highly reduced, rarely absent in highly congested clusters. |
|
Cyathia | peduncle 0.9–1.5 mm. |
solitary at distal nodes or at nodes of short, axillary branches; peduncle 1.8–3 mm. |
2n | = 28. |
|
Euphorbia heterophylla |
Euphorbia perennans |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting nearly year-round. | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. |
Habitat | Disturbed areas, roadsides. | Desert scrub, on cretaceous and gypseous clay, limestone hills and flats. |
Elevation | 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.) | 900–1200 m. (3000–3900 ft.) |
Distribution |
Mexico; Central America; South America [Introduced, Ala., Ariz., Calif., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.Mex., Tex.; introduced also in Eurasia, Africa]
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TX; Mexico (Chihuahua) |
Discussion | Euphorbia heterophylla occurs from the southern United States, where it is likely naturalized, south through Mexico and Central America to South America. Because of its weediness, the precise native range in tropical and subtropical parts of the New World is not well understood. It has become widely established also in warm areas of the Old World. Leaf shape in this species is highly polymorphic within both populations and individuals. Euphorbia heterophylla can appear superficially similar to E. cyathophora but differs in its stipitate, circular involucral glands and its floral bracts that are at most very pale at the base (never colored as is typical in E. cyathophora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Euphorbia perennans is a distinctive species with an erect habit and relatively large, firm, deltate midstem leaves. Phylogenetic data place E. perennans in a clade of primarily Chihuahuan Desert annual and perennial species (for example, E. chaetocalyx, E. fendleri, E. golondrina, E. simulans, E. spurca, and E. theriaca; Y. Yang and P. E. Berry 2011). Euphorbia perennans is known in the flora area only from Brewster County. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 323. | FNA vol. 12, p. 282. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. geniculata, Poinsettia geniculata, P. heterophylla | Chamaesyce perennans |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 453. (1753) | (Shinners) Warnock & M. C. Johnston: SouthW. Naturalist 5: 170. (1960) |
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