Euphorbia lathyris |
Euphorbia yaquiana |
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caper spurge, euphorbe épurge, gopher plant, gopher spurge, mole plant |
hairy Mojave spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, annual or biennial, with taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with thick rootstock. |
Stems | erect, unbranched or branched, 200 cm, glabrous, glaucous. |
slender, erect or ascending, sometimes sinuous, densely branched near base, 10–50 cm, moderately to densely puberulent to lanulose. |
Leaves | opposite, decussate; petiole absent; blade linear to oblong-lanceolate, 30–120 × 3–25 mm, base acute, rounded, cordate or clasping, margins entire, apex acute or subobtuse, sometimes mucronate, surfaces glabrous, abaxial ± glaucous; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
petiole 0–1 mm; blade usually lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, sometimes slightly oblanceolate, 8–30 × 6–14 mm, base usually acute, occasionally short-attenuate, rarely obtuse, margins entire, apex usually acute, occasionally obtuse, acuminate, or cuspidate, surfaces sparsely to moderately puberulent to lanulose; venation pinnate, sometimes obscure, midvein prominent. |
Involucre | campanulate, 1.2–2.3 × 1.4–2.5 mm, glabrous; glands 4, elliptic, 0.3–0.6 × 1–1.3 mm; horns divergent, thick, tips rounded, dilated, 0.5–1.4 mm. |
campanulate to broadly turbinate, 2.2–3 × 2–2.5 mm, puberulent to lanulose; glands 4, semicircular, trapezoidal, or elliptic-truncate, 0.8–1.5 × 1–2.2 mm, margins strongly crenate or dentate; horns usually absent, if present then straight, 0.1–0.2 mm, generally equaling teeth on gland margin. |
Staminate flowers | 25–30. |
12–20. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 0.7–2.2 mm, 2-fid. |
ovary usually puberulent, occasionally lanulose; styles 1–1.2 mm, 2-fid. |
Capsules | depressed-globose, 9–12 × 12–16 mm, deeply 3-lobed, tardily dehiscent and appearing indehiscent, mesocarp spongy; cocci rounded, smooth, glabrous; columella 4–5.2 mm. |
oblong-ovoid, 3.5–4 × 3–4 mm, 3-lobed; cocci rounded, smooth, usually puberulent, occasionally lanulose; columella 2.5–3 mm. |
Seeds | brownish or blackish, oblong, 4.5–6 × 3–4.2 mm, rugose, irregularly reticulate; caruncle substipitate, hat-shaped, 1.6–2 × 1.2–1.5 mm. |
gray to whitish, oblong cylindric, 2–3 × 1.5–1.8 mm, irregularly shallowly pitted to almost smooth; caruncle conic, 0.6 × 0.6 mm. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 2–4, each 1–2 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts cordate-lanceolate, shorter and wider than distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, ovate-oblong to lanceolate, base subcordate, margins entire, apex acute; axillary cymose branches 0–10. |
arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 3–5, each 1–2 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts broadly ovate to subcordate, usually similar in size to, occasionally wider than, distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, broadly ovate to almost reniform, base obtuse, margins entire, apex obtuse, acuminate to cuspidate; axillary cymose branches 0–5. |
Cyathia | peduncle 0–0.5 mm. |
peduncle 0.3–0.8 mm. |
Euphorbia lathyris |
Euphorbia yaquiana |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting winter–fall. | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. |
Habitat | Roadsides, cultivated fields, stream banks, waste places. | Ponderosa pine forests, oak-pine mixed forests, dry stream banks and beds, open scrub areas, roadsides. |
Elevation | 0–1800 m. (0–5900 ft.) | 1000–2200 m. (3300–7200 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CT; ID; IL; MA; MD; MT; NC; OH; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WA; WV; BC; ON; QC; Europe; Asia; Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico, South America, Australia]
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AZ |
Discussion | Euphorbia lathyris is most likely native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region, but it is widely cultivated and often locally escaped in temperate regions worldwide, as in the flora area. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Euphorbia yaquiana is endemic to Pima and Graham counties in southern Arizona and is known only from the Santa Catalina and Pinaleño mountains. Records of E. yaquiana from southwestern Colorado (as E. incisa var. mollis) likely represent misidentifications of E. brachycera; therefore, those disjunct occurrences have been excluded here from the distribution of E. yaquiana. Euphorbia yaquiana has often been treated as a synonym of E. schizoloba var. mollis, but molecular phylogenetic data show that it is more closely related to E. brachycera and E. chamaesula (J. A. Peirson et al. 2014). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 304. | FNA vol. 12, p. 313. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Galarhoeus lathyris, Tithymalus lathyris | E. schizoloba var. mollis, E. incisa var. mollis |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 457. (1753) — (as lathyrus) | Tidestrom: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 48: 41. (1935) |
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