Euphorbia oblongata |
Euphorbia eriantha |
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Balkan spurge, egg-leaf spurge, oblong spurge |
beetle spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, with woody taproot. | Herbs, annual or perennial, with slender to thick, woody taproot. |
Stems | erect, unbranched or densely branching, 80 cm, often densely villous (especially young stems and pleiochasial branches). |
erect to ascending, 10–75 cm, glabrous or with scattered appressed hairs (especially near nodes); branches arcuate. |
Leaves | petiole absent; blade oblong to narrowly obovate or lanceolate, 15–70 × 6–25 mm, base rounded or truncate, margins finely serrulate, apex obtuse, mucronulate, surfaces glabrous; venation inconspicuously pinnate, midvein prominent. |
alternate; petiole 0.1–0.4 mm, often indistinct, glabrous or sparsely pilose to shortly sericeous; blade linear to linear-elliptic, 20–55 × 1–3 mm, base attenuate, margins entire or with 2–4 inconspicuous teeth near apex, apex acute, abaxial surface pilose to shortly sericeous, adaxial surface usually glabrous, rarely pilose to shortly sericeous; only midvein conspicuous. |
Involucre | cupulate to slightly turbinate, 1.5–2.5 × 1.3–1.5 mm, glabrous; glands 2–3, elliptic, 0.6–0.8 × 0.8–1.2 mm; horns absent. |
obconic, 2.1–2.6 × 1.3–2 mm, canescent; involucral lobes triangular, obscured by hairs; glands (2–)4–5, green to maroon, color often obscured by hairs, sessile and broadly attached, 0.5–0.6 × 0.5–0.6 mm, opening oblong to nearly circular, densely canescent; appendages petaloid, whitish, hoodlike, incurved and covering glands, 0.5–1 × 0.5–0.8 mm, divided into 5–12 fringed, subulate segments, densely canescent. |
Staminate flowers | 15–40. |
20–25. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 1.5–2 mm, 2-fid. |
ovary canescent; styles 0.9–1.5 mm, unbranched. |
Capsules | globose, 3–4.5 × 3–4.5 mm, slightly 3-lobed; cocci rounded, verrucose-tuberculate, glabrous; columella 2.5–3.3 mm. |
oblong to ovoid, 4.4–4.9 × 3.5–4.1 mm, canescent (often with interspersed glabrescent patches); columella 3.5–3.9 mm. |
Seeds | brown, ovoid, 2.4–2.6 × 1.3–2 mm, smooth, caruncle reniform, 0.2–0.3 × 0.8–0.9 mm. |
mottled black and gray or light brown, oblong or slightly ovoid, dorsiventrally compressed in cross section, 2.8–4.1 × 2–2.4 mm, irregularly pitted and tuberculate; caruncle 0.4–0.8 × 0.6–1.1 mm. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches 3–5, each 2–3 times 2–4-branched; pleiochasial bracts ovate, similar in size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts distinct, ovate to suborbiculate, base truncate or rounded, margins entire or finely denticulate, apex obtuse, sometimes mucronulate; axillary cymose branches 0–4. |
arrangement: terminal cymose branches 1, 1–2-branched; pleiochasial bracts 2–3, opposite or whorled, wholly green, similar in shape and size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts similar in shape to distal leaves or often highly reduced. |
Cyathia | peduncle 1–5 mm. |
peduncle 1–1.9 mm. |
Euphorbia oblongata |
Euphorbia eriantha |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting year-round in response to sufficient rainfall. |
Habitat | Waste areas, disturbed sites, roadsides, fields, pastures. | Desert scrub on rocky slopes and along washes. |
Elevation | 30–900 m. (100–3000 ft.) | 60–800 m. (200–2600 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; OR; WA; s Europe [Introduced in North America]
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AZ; CA; NM; TX; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Sonora)
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Discussion | Euphorbia oblongata is listed as a noxious weed by the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 321. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus oblongatus | |
Name authority | Grisebach: Spic. Fl. Rumel. 1: 136. (1843) | Bentham: Bot. Voy. Sulphur, 51. (1844) |
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