Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia marginata |
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broad leaf glaucous spurge, donkey tail, myrtle or creeping or blue spurge, myrtle spurge |
euphorbe marginée, mountain snow spurge, smoke-on-the-prairie, snow-on-the-mountain, variegated spurge, whitemargined 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. |
erect, unbranched or branched, 30–85(–150) cm, pilose or 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. |
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, 2.4–2.6 × 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, 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 | 6–12. |
30–70. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 2.5–2.8 mm, usually unbranched. |
ovary pilose; styles 1–2.5 mm, 2-fid 1/2–2/3 length. |
Capsules | subglobose, 5–7 × 5–6 mm, unlobed; cocci rounded to subangular, smooth, glabrous; columella 4.5–5 mm. |
oblate, 3–5 × 3.5–7.5 mm, moderately to densely pilose; columella 3–4.1 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. |
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. |
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. |
in terminal pleiochasia, dichasial bracts narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate with conspicuous white margins; peduncle 1.8–2.7(–22) mm, densely pilose. |
2n | = 56. |
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Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia marginata |
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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. | Disturbed areas and grasslands. |
Elevation | 0–2400 m. (0–7900 ft.) | 0–1700 m. (0–5600 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; OR; UT; WA; WY; BC; s Europe; w Asia [Introduced in North America]
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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 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 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. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 248. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Alectoroctonum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus myrsinites | E. bonplandii, Lepadena marginata |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 461. (1753) | Pursh: Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 607. (1813) |
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