Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia serrula |
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broad leaf glaucous spurge, donkey tail, myrtle or creeping or blue spurge, myrtle spurge |
sawtooth sandmat |
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Habit | Herbs, usually perennial, occasionally biennial, with taproot. | Herbs, annual, with slender taproot. |
Stems | erect or semiprostrate, unbranched or branched, 15–40 cm, succulent, glabrous. |
prostrate or ascending, 5–20 cm, usually pilose to villous, rarely glabrate. |
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, rarely connate at base, triangular or laciniate into subulate segments, 1–1.8 mm, glabrous; petiole 0.3–0.8 mm, glabrous or villous; blade oblong, ovate, or elliptic, sometimes falcate, 3–11 × 2–5 mm, base asymmetric, rounded to hemicordate, margins sharply serrate to serrulate, usually with conspicuous teeth at base of leaf, apex usually obtuse, rarely acute, surfaces frequently with red blotch in center, not papillate, sparsely pilose to glabrate; 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. |
obconic, 0.8–1.1 × 0.8–1 mm, glabrous; glands 4, greenish yellow, usually reniform to elliptic, rarely circular, 0.1 × 0.1–0.2 mm; appendages usually white, rarely light pink, orbiculate, 0.1–0.3 × 0.2–0.4 mm, distal margin entire or crenulate. |
Staminate flowers | 6–12. |
7–15. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 2.5–2.8 mm, usually unbranched. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.3–0.5 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. |
oblate, cocci not elongated nor terminating in empty portion, 2–2.6 × 3.2–3.7 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 to light brown, broadly ellipsoid to ovoid, 3–4-angled in cross section, 1.5–1.8 × 1.1–1.3(–1.5) mm, smooth to minutely rugulose or with scattered small depressions. |
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 0.4–1.8(–2.3) mm. |
Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia serrula |
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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. | Desert scrub, with creosote bush, grasslands with mesquite and yucca, rarely in ponderosa pine woodlands, often sandy substrates. |
Elevation | 0–2400 m. (0–7900 ft.) | 300–1900 m. (1000–6200 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; NM; TX; 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.) |
In Mexico, Euphorbia serrula is found from Chihuahua and Coahuila south to Puebla. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 288. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus myrsinites | Chamaesyce serrula |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 461. (1753) | Engelmann: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 188. (1859) |
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