Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia missurica |
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broad leaf glaucous spurge, donkey tail, myrtle or creeping or blue spurge, myrtle spurge |
Missouri spurge, prairie sandmat, prairie 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 or ascending, 10–60(–100) cm, glabrous, sometimes ± glaucous. |
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 on one or both sides of stem, linear to triangular-subulate, usually deeply and irregularly fringed or lobed, rarely entire, 0.7–1.5 mm, glabrous; petiole 1–3 mm, glabrous; blade linear to narrowly oblong or narrowly lanceolate-oblong, (4–)8–30 × 3–7 mm, base symmetric or subsymmetric (usually narrower leaves), or slightly asymmetric and angled or short-tapered (wider leaves), margins entire, occasionally ± revolute, apex rounded to truncate, occasionally emarginate or mucronulate, abaxial surface pale green, adaxial surface light to bright green, both surfaces glabrous; venation obscure. |
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. |
broadly campanulate, 1.2–1.8 × 1.7–1.9 mm, glabrous; glands 4, yellowish green, broadly oblong to nearly circular, cupped or folded, 0.3–0.6 × 0.3–0.7 mm; appendages white or ± pinkish tinged, ovate to oblong-ovate, 0.4–2.5 × 1.1–1.7 mm, distal margin entire or slightly crenate or emarginate at tip. |
Staminate flowers | 6–12. |
24–60. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 2.5–2.8 mm, usually unbranched. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.5–1.4 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. |
broadly ovoid-globose, 1.9–2.5 × 2–2.5(–3) mm, glabrous; columella 1.8–2.1 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. |
mottled whitish to brown, ovoid to broadly ovoid-triangular, bluntly 3-angled in cross section, 1.5–2 × 1.1–1.4 mm, smooth or 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 or in small, cymose clusters these occasionally subtended by reduced, bractlike leaves at distal nodes or on congested, axillary branches; peduncle 1–5(–11) mm. |
Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia missurica |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting late spring–late summer. |
Habitat | Scrub oak communities, open ground near forests, shrub-steppes. | Glades, ledges, bluff tops (usually calcareous), dry upland forest margins, sandy or disturbed areas. |
Elevation | 0–2400 m. (0–7900 ft.) | 50–1500 m. (200–4900 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; CO; IA; KS; MO; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WY
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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 missurica is similar to the western E. parryi but has a more upright growth habit and more conspicuous involucral gland appendages. Native occurrences have been documented from Minnesota (last collected in Ottertail County in 1936), but it appears to have been extirpated from that state due to habitat loss to agriculture. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 278. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus myrsinites | Chamaesyce missurica, E. missurica var. intermedia, E. petaloidea var. intermedia |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 461. (1753) | Rafinesque: Atlantic J. 1: 146. (1832) |
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