Euphorbia oblongata |
Euphorbia strictior |
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Balkan spurge, egg-leaf spurge, oblong spurge |
panhandle spurge |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, with woody taproot. | Herbs, perennial, with cylindric rootstock. |
Stems | erect, unbranched or densely branching, 80 cm, often densely villous (especially young stems and pleiochasial branches). |
erect, branched, densely clumped, previous year’s dead stems often persistent, 30–70 cm, glabrous. |
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, persisting, spreading or ascending; stipules to 0.1 mm; petiole absent; blade linear to narrowly oblanceolate, (20–)40–70 × (2–)4–5 mm, base narrowly cuneate, margins entire, apex broadly acute, surfaces glabrous; venation obscure, only midvein conspicuous on wider leaves. |
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 hemispheric, 1.2–2.4 × 2.2–3.2 mm, pilose; glands 5, green, broadly elliptic, 0.7–0.8 × 1.3–1.6 mm; appendages white, forming narrow rim around distal margin of gland, 0.2 × 1.5–1.8 mm, entire or erose. |
Staminate flowers | 15–40. |
20–25. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous; styles 1.5–2 mm, 2-fid. |
ovary strigillose to tomentulose; styles 0.4–0.6 mm, 2-fid at apex. |
Capsules | globose, 3–4.5 × 3–4.5 mm, slightly 3-lobed; cocci rounded, verrucose-tuberculate, glabrous; columella 2.5–3.3 mm. |
globose, all 3 locules fertile, 3.2–4.5 × 4–6.5 mm, sparsely strigillose; columella 2.5–3.9 mm. |
Seeds | brown, ovoid, 2.4–2.6 × 1.3–2 mm, smooth, caruncle reniform, 0.2–0.3 × 0.8–0.9 mm. |
gray-green to gray-brown, ovoid, 3.8 × 3 mm, shallowly and obscurely pitted; caruncle absent. |
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. |
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Cyathia | peduncle 1–5 mm. |
in terminal dichasia; peduncle (2–)4–12(–18) mm proximal and mid peduncles and cyathia abscising early, sparsely to moderately strigose to sericeous. |
Euphorbia oblongata |
Euphorbia strictior |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. | Flowering and fruiting spring–fall. |
Habitat | Waste areas, disturbed sites, roadsides, fields, pastures. | Open grasslands and uplands. |
Elevation | 30–900 m. (100–3000 ft.) | 900–1400 m. (3000–4600 ft.) |
Distribution |
CA; OR; WA; s Europe [Introduced in North America]
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NM; TX |
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 strictior is confined to a small area of the Texas Panhandle and adjacent New Mexico. The species is closely related to E. aaron-rossii and E. wrightii; it can be distinguished from E. wrightii by its larger stature, shorter and less petaloid involucral gland appendages, and early abscising proximal and mid cyathia and peduncles. Euphorbia strictior also tends to develop all three seeds in the capsule, whereas E. wrightii tends to develop only two. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 305. | FNA vol. 12, p. 251. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > subg. Esula | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Alectoroctonum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Tithymalus oblongatus | |
Name authority | Grisebach: Spic. Fl. Rumel. 1: 136. (1843) | Holzinger: Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 1: 214, plate 18. (1892) |
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