Euphorbia radians |
Euphorbia parishii |
|
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sun spurge |
Parish's sandmat |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, with moniliform tuberous rootstock. | Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, with thickened and often woody rootstock. |
Stems | erect, 5–20(–30) cm, usually glabrous, occasionally puberulent; branches ± straight. |
prostrate, sometimes forming dense mounds, 10–50 cm, glabrous. |
Leaves | alternate; petiole 0–2 mm, glabrous or strigose; blade linear-lanceolate to ovate or broadly elliptic, 25–50 × 3–20 mm, unlobed, base rounded (tapered to petiole), margins with few glandular teeth, strigillose, flat to revolute, apex acute, abaxial surface coarsely strigose, adaxial surface strigose-hirsute; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
opposite; stipules distinct, subulate-filiform, 0.3–0.9 mm, pilose; petiole 0.3–1.2 mm, glabrous; blade usually ovate, rarely oblong, 2–7 × 1–5 mm, base usually asymmetric, rounded to hemicordate, margins entire, apex usually obtuse, rarely acute, surfaces glabrous; only midvein conspicuous. |
Involucre | broadly globose-cupulate, 1.7–2.1 × 2.2–2.5 mm, glabrous or puberulent; involucral lobes divided into triangular segments; glands 1–4(–5), white, sessile and broadly attached, 1.1 × 1.4 mm, opening oblong, glabrous; appendages absent. |
obconic to campanulate, 1–1.4 × 0.9–1.3 mm, glabrous except for pilose lobes; glands 4, pink to maroon, circular, 0.3–0.4 × 0.3–0.4 mm; appendages absent. |
Staminate flowers | 20–25. |
40–50. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous or puberulent, styles 3–4 mm, 2-fid 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.3–0.6 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. |
Capsules | depressed-globose, 3.8–5 × 4–5 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous or puberulent; columella 3.6–4.5 mm. |
ovoid to oblate-ovoid, 1.6–1.7 × 1.6–1.9 mm, glabrous; columella 1.2–1.5 mm. |
Seeds | white, mottled brown to gray, ellipsoid, rounded in cross section, 4–4.6 × 2.4–3.2 mm, smoothly and broadly pitted or grooved; caruncle 0.1 mm. |
whitish to light brown, ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, 1.2–1.4 × 0.6–0.8 mm, rugose or with indistinct, irregular, low transverse ridges. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal pleiochasial branches usually 3, occasionally reduced to congested cyme, 1–2-branched (often highly condensed); pleiochasial bracts 6–8(–10), as tight involucrate whorl, wholly white to pale pink or red, usually narrower than distal leaves; dichasial bracts linear and highly reduced. |
|
Cyathia | peduncle 2–5.5 mm. |
solitary at distal nodes; peduncle 0.1–0.6(–2.2) mm. |
Euphorbia radians |
Euphorbia parishii |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting fall–summer. |
Habitat | Pinyon-juniper woodlands, oak savannas, desert grasslands and scrub. | Desert scrub, often with creosote bush, disturbed roadsides, rocky soils. |
Elevation | 700–2500 m. (2300–8200 ft.) | -90–600 m. (-300–2000 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; TX; Mexico
|
CA; NV |
Discussion | Euphorbia radians is widely distributed but scattered from the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts south to Oaxaca in Mexico. The species is distinct among species in sect. Poinsettia in the flora area in its precocious habit, often flowering before the leaves emerge. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Euphorbia parishii is common in the Death Valley region of southern California, where it is often encountered well below sea level. The species is frequently confused with E. micromera and E. polycarpa but differs from the former in being a more robust plant with larger cyathia and from the latter in lacking involucral gland appendages. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 324. | FNA vol. 12, p. 280. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Poinsettia radians | Chamaesyce parishii, E. polycarpa var. parishii |
Name authority | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 8. (1839) | Greene: Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 56. (1886) |
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