Euphorbia marginata |
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euphorbe marginée, mountain snow spurge, smoke-on-the-prairie, snow-on-the-mountain, variegated spurge, whitemargined spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, annual, with taproot. |
Stems | erect, unbranched or branched, 30–85(–150) cm, pilose or glabrous. |
Leaves | alternate; stipules 0.1–0.3 mm; petiole 0.2–3 mm, glabrous or minutely pilose; blade broadly ovate to elliptic, 32–62(–82) × 18–28(–52) mm, base rounded to cuneate, margins entire, often white on distal leaves, apex acute, rarely mucronate, surfaces glabrous; venation obscure, only midvein conspicuous. |
Involucre | campanulate, 2.2–3.5 × 1.3–2.3 mm, margin between glands deeply divided into fringe of fimbriate lobes, pilose; glands 4–5, green to greenish yellow, reniform to subcircular, 0.7–1.1 × 1–1.6 mm; appendages white, orbiculate, 1.5–2.7 × 1.9–2.9(–3.6) mm, entire. |
Staminate flowers | 30–70. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary pilose; styles 1–2.5 mm, 2-fid 1/2–2/3 length. |
Capsules | oblate, 3–5 × 3.5–7.5 mm, moderately to densely pilose; columella 3–4.1 mm. |
Seeds | orange-tan to gray, ovoid, 3.7–3.9 × 3–3.3 mm, rugose, with 2 transverse ridges (one dark orange to brown, other inconspicuous); caruncle absent. |
Cyathia | in terminal pleiochasia, dichasial bracts narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate with conspicuous white margins; peduncle 1.8–2.7(–22) mm, densely pilose. |
2n | = 56. |
Euphorbia marginata |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Disturbed areas and grasslands. |
Elevation | 0–1700 m. (0–5600 ft.) |
Distribution |
AR; CA; CO; CT; IA; IL; IN; KS; LA; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; NE; NH; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; WI; WV; WY; MB; ON; QC; SK; c Mexico; s Mexico
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Discussion | Euphorbia marginata is native to the central United States. The type specimen was collected by Meriwether Lewis along the Yellowstone River in southern Montana in 1806, and it has been reported to be native as far south as Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and as far east as southern Minnesota, western Iowa, and Missouri (G. Yatskievych 1999–2013, vol. 2). It is presumably naturalized outside of this area. Euphorbia marginata is widely cultivated as an ornamental for its showy, white-margined distal leaves, and it can escape locally. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 248. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Alectoroctonum |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | E. bonplandii, Lepadena marginata |
Name authority | Pursh: Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 607. (1813) |
Web links |
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