Euphorbia oblongata |
Euphorbia mendezii |
|
---|---|---|
Balkan spurge, egg-leaf spurge, oblong spurge |
Mendez's sandmat |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, with woody taproot. | Herbs, annual or perennial, with slender taproot. |
Stems | erect, unbranched or densely branching, 80 cm, often densely villous (especially young stems and pleiochasial branches). |
prostrate, often mat-forming, 8–35 cm, usually villous along margins, lower surface glabrous, upper surface usually strigillose to puberulent, rarely glabrous or glabrate. |
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. |
opposite; stipules usually distinct or connate basally, rarely completely connate, deltate, laciniate, glabrous or pilose (lower side), forming narrow deltate scale, sometimes apically 2-fid or laciniate, glabrous (upper side), 0.4–1.9 mm; petiole 0.3–1.2 mm, glabrous, pilose or villous; blade oblong to obovate, 4–12 × 2–7 mm, base asymmetric, one side attenuate, cuneate or rounded, other rounded or cordate, margins serrulate at least distally, apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous or sparsely sericeous, pilose or villous; 3-veined at base. |
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. |
campanulate or obconic, 0.8–1 × 0.7–0.8 mm, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely pilose toward apex; glands 4, pink, reniform, oblong or elliptic, 0.1 × 0.2–0.3 mm; appendages absent or white to pink, oblong, flabellate or forming narrow rim around edge of gland, 0.1–0.3 × 0.3–0.6 mm, distal margin usually entire, sometimes lobed. |
Staminate flowers | 15–40. |
6–15. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 1.5–2 mm, 2-fid. |
ovary usually pilose or villous with hairs concentrated along keels, rarely glabrous; styles 0.2–0.3 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. |
Capsules | globose, 3–4.5 × 3–4.5 mm, slightly 3-lobed; cocci rounded, verrucose-tuberculate, glabrous; columella 2.5–3.3 mm. |
ovoid, 1.2–1.6 × 1.2–1.4 mm, usually pilose or villous with hairs concentrated along keels, often glabrous in between, very rarely completely glabrous; columella 1–1.4 mm. |
Seeds | brown, ovoid, 2.4–2.6 × 1.3–2 mm, smooth, caruncle reniform, 0.2–0.3 × 0.8–0.9 mm. |
reddish brown to orange or gray-pink, narrowly ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, 0.9–1.2 × 0.5–0.6 mm, almost smooth or with 5–7 faint transverse ridges that do not pass through abaxial keel. |
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. |
|
Cyathia | peduncle 1–5 mm. |
solitary at nodes or on short, congested axillary branches; peduncle 0.9–2.5 mm. |
Euphorbia oblongata |
Euphorbia mendezii |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting year-round. |
Habitat | Waste areas, disturbed sites, roadsides, fields, pastures. | Disturbed areas. |
Elevation | 30–900 m. (100–3000 ft.) | 0–10 m. (0–0 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; OR; WA; s Europe [Introduced in North America]
|
FL; Mexico; Central America; West Indies; n South America [Introduced in North America] |
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.) |
Euphorbia mendezii is a common weed distributed widely throughout Mexico and Central America. Within the flora area the species is known only from southern Florida. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 277. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus oblongatus | Chamaesyce mendezii |
Name authority | Grisebach: Spic. Fl. Rumel. 1: 136. (1843) | Boissier: Cent. Euphorb., 15. (1860) |
Web links |
|