Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia yaquiana |
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broad leaf glaucous spurge, donkey tail, myrtle or creeping or blue spurge, myrtle spurge |
hairy Mojave spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, usually perennial, occasionally biennial, with taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with thick rootstock. |
Stems | erect or semiprostrate, unbranched or branched, 15–40 cm, succulent, glabrous. |
slender, erect or ascending, sometimes sinuous, densely branched near base, 10–50 cm, moderately to densely puberulent to lanulose. |
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. |
petiole 0–1 mm; blade usually lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, sometimes slightly oblanceolate, 8–30 × 6–14 mm, base usually acute, occasionally short-attenuate, rarely obtuse, margins entire, apex usually acute, occasionally obtuse, acuminate, or cuspidate, surfaces sparsely to moderately puberulent to lanulose; venation pinnate, sometimes obscure, midvein prominent. |
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 broadly turbinate, 2.2–3 × 2–2.5 mm, puberulent to lanulose; glands 4, semicircular, trapezoidal, or elliptic-truncate, 0.8–1.5 × 1–2.2 mm, margins strongly crenate or dentate; horns usually absent, if present then straight, 0.1–0.2 mm, generally equaling teeth on gland margin. |
Staminate flowers | 6–12. |
12–20. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 2.5–2.8 mm, usually unbranched. |
ovary usually puberulent, occasionally lanulose; styles 1–1.2 mm, 2-fid. |
Capsules | subglobose, 5–7 × 5–6 mm, unlobed; cocci rounded to subangular, smooth, glabrous; columella 4.5–5 mm. |
oblong-ovoid, 3.5–4 × 3–4 mm, 3-lobed; cocci rounded, smooth, usually puberulent, occasionally lanulose; columella 2.5–3 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. |
gray to whitish, oblong cylindric, 2–3 × 1.5–1.8 mm, irregularly shallowly pitted to almost smooth; caruncle conic, 0.6 × 0.6 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. |
arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 3–5, each 1–2 times 2-branched; pleiochasial bracts broadly ovate to subcordate, usually similar in size to, occasionally wider than, distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, broadly ovate to almost reniform, base obtuse, margins entire, apex obtuse, acuminate to cuspidate; axillary cymose branches 0–5. |
Cyathia | peduncle 0.5–1 mm. |
peduncle 0.3–0.8 mm. |
Euphorbia myrsinites |
Euphorbia yaquiana |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. |
Habitat | Scrub oak communities, open ground near forests, shrub-steppes. | Ponderosa pine forests, oak-pine mixed forests, dry stream banks and beds, open scrub areas, roadsides. |
Elevation | 0–2400 m. (0–7900 ft.) | 1000–2200 m. (3300–7200 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 |
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 yaquiana is endemic to Pima and Graham counties in southern Arizona and is known only from the Santa Catalina and Pinaleño mountains. Records of E. yaquiana from southwestern Colorado (as E. incisa var. mollis) likely represent misidentifications of E. brachycera; therefore, those disjunct occurrences have been excluded here from the distribution of E. yaquiana. Euphorbia yaquiana has often been treated as a synonym of E. schizoloba var. mollis, but molecular phylogenetic data show that it is more closely related to E. brachycera and E. chamaesula (J. A. Peirson et al. 2014). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 313. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus myrsinites | E. schizoloba var. mollis, E. incisa var. mollis |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 461. (1753) | Tidestrom: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 48: 41. (1935) |
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