Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia carunculata |
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broad leaf glaucous spurge, donkey tail, myrtle or creeping or blue spurge, myrtle spurge |
sand-dune sandmat or spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, usually perennial, occasionally biennial, with taproot. | Herbs, annual, with taproot. |
Stems | erect or semiprostrate, unbranched or branched, 15–40 cm, succulent, glabrous. |
prostrate, spreading and lanky or occasionally mat-forming, ± succulent, 70–150 cm, glabrous. |
Leaves | petiole 0–2 mm; blade obovate, obovate-oblong, lanceolate, orbiculate, or suborbiculate, 2–30 × 3–17 mm, fleshy, base truncate or attenuate, margins entire or finely denticulate, apex acute to obtuse, cuspidate or strongly mucronate, surfaces glabrous; venation and midvein inconspicuous. |
opposite; stipules usually distinct, occasionally connate basally (primarily at distal nodes), usually divided into 2–5 subulate to subulate-filiform segments, occasionally forming narrow deltate segments (primarily at distal nodes), 0.8–1.8 mm, glabrous; petiole 3.1–6.3 mm, glabrous; blade ovate to elliptic-oblong, 5–26 × 4–12 mm, base subsymmetric to symmetric, rounded to cuneate, margins entire, apex usually mucronate, rarely acute or obtuse, surfaces glabrous; pinnately veined. |
Involucre | campanulate, 2.4–2.6 × 2.3–2.5 mm, glabrous; glands 4, trapezoidal, 1–1.5 × 1.5–2.5 mm; horns divergent, thick, tips rounded, dilated, 0.5–0.9 mm. |
campanulate, 1.1–1.8 × 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous; glands 4, yellowish, sessile or short stipitate, circular to oblong, 0.5–0.7 × 0.5–0.8 mm; appendages white to yellowish, ovate to oblong, occasionally rudimentary, (0–)0.8–1.2 × 0.8–1.5 mm, distal margin entire. |
Staminate flowers | 6–12. |
15–25. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 2.5–2.8 mm, usually unbranched. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.7–1 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. |
Capsules | subglobose, 5–7 × 5–6 mm, unlobed; cocci rounded to subangular, smooth, glabrous; columella 4.5–5 mm. |
ovoid, 4.7–5.5(–6) × 3.6–5.1 mm, glabrous; columella 4.3–5.1 mm. |
Seeds | brownish to grayish, oblong, 2.8–4.5 × 2–3.2 mm, vermiculate-rugose; caruncle substipitate, trapezoidal or mushroom-shaped, 1.3–1.5 × 0.6–0.8 mm. |
grayish white to reddish brown mottled, bottle-shaped, strongly dorsiventrally compressed and weakly 3-angled in cross section, (2.8–)4.1–5.2 × 1.2–2(–3.4) mm, smooth; carunclelike structure linear, 0.4–0.5 × 0.1–0.2 mm. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 2–12, each 1–2 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts similar in shape and size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, suborbiculate or reniform, base truncate, margins entire or minutely denticulate, apex obtuse, mucronulate; axillary cymose branches 0–4. |
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Cyathia | peduncle 0.5–1 mm. |
solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 1.4–3.6 mm. |
Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia carunculata |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Scrub oak communities, open ground near forests, shrub-steppes. | Sand dunes. |
Elevation | 0–2400 m. (0–7900 ft.) | 400–1300 m. (1300–4300 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; OR; UT; WA; WY; BC; s Europe; w Asia [Introduced in North America]
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KS; NM; OK; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua) |
Discussion | Euphorbia myrsinites is cultivated in much of the flora area, where it can tolerate cold winters. In some areas, it can locally escape from cultivation. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Euphorbia carunculata has a highly localized and scattered distribution. The species is restricted to sand dunes and known from only a handful of localities throughout its relatively wide range. The seeds are unique in being bottle-shaped and strongly laterally compressed, and unlike other members of sect. Anisophyllum, there is a minute, linear, carunclelike protuberance at the hilum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 262. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus myrsinites | Chamaesyce carunculata |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 461. (1753) | Waterfall: Rhodora 50: 63. (1948) |
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