Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia fendleri |
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broad leaf glaucous spurge, donkey tail, myrtle or creeping or blue spurge, myrtle spurge |
Fendler's sandmat |
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Habit | Herbs, usually perennial, occasionally biennial, with taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with woody, thickened taproot. |
Stems | erect or semiprostrate, unbranched or branched, 15–40 cm, succulent, glabrous. |
usually prostrate, decumbent, or ascending, very rarely erect, often densely clustered from top of woody crown, 5–12 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. |
usually opposite, rarely whorled; stipules distinct, narrowly linear, 0.5–1 mm, glabrous; petiole 0.5–1 mm, glabrous; blade usually orbiculate to ovate, rarely almost lanceolate, 3–8 × 2.5–7 mm, base slightly asymmetric, slightly cordate to rounded or obtuse, margins entire, apex rounded to obtuse, surfaces glabrous; obscurely 3–5-veined from base, only midvein conspicuous. |
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 to turbinate or broadly cupulate, 1.1–1.7 × 1.2–1.8 mm, glabrous; glands 4, yellow-green to reddish, elliptic to oblong, 0.2–0.5 × 0.4–0.9 mm; appendages absent or white, rarely pink, often unequal, lunate to flabellate or sometimes forming crenate margin along gland, (0–)0.1–0.6 × (0–)0.5–1.5 mm, distal margin entire or toothed. |
Staminate flowers | 6–12. |
25–35. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 2.5–2.8 mm, usually unbranched. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.3–0.4 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. |
depressed-globose, 2–2.4 × 2.2–2.5 mm, glabrous; columella 1.7–2.1 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. |
white, ovoid-pyramidal, prominently 4-angled in cross section, 1.7–2 × 1–1.2 mm, smooth to slightly wrinkled. |
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 0.7–1.2 mm. |
2n | = 28. |
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Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia fendleri |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. |
Habitat | Scrub oak communities, open ground near forests, shrub-steppes. | Mountain slopes, desert scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands, hills, canyons, grasslands, washes, roadsides, dry crevices in limestone, often in gravel and sand. |
Elevation | 0–2400 m. (0–7900 ft.) | 500–2600 m. (1600–8500 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; OR; UT; WA; WY; BC; s Europe; w Asia [Introduced in North America]
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AZ; CA; CO; KS; NE; NM; NV; OK; SD; TX; UT; WY; Mexico (Coahuila)
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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 fendleri is similar to E. chaetocalyx and may sometimes be confused with that species. Its prostrate to decumbent or ascending stems and small, ovate to orbiculate leaves distinguish it from E. chaetocalyx. Some authors have used the presence or absence and shape of the involucral gland appendages to help separate E. fendleri from E. chaetocalyx, but those characters appear highly variable and of little taxonomic utility; somewhat intermediate individuals occur in western Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 267. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus myrsinites | Chamaesyce fendleri |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 461. (1753) | Torrey & A. Gray: in War Department [U.S.], Pacif. Railr. Rep. 2(4): 175. (1857) |
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