Euphorbia radians |
Euphorbia villifera |
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sun spurge |
hairy spurge |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, with moniliform tuberous rootstock. | Herbs, annual or perennial, with slender taproot or thickened, woody rootstock. |
Stems | erect, 5–20(–30) cm, usually glabrous, occasionally puberulent; branches ± straight. |
usually erect to ascending, rarely prostrate to decumbent, 10–30 cm, papillate, usually villous, sometimes 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, filiform, usually undivided, rarely divided into 2–3 segments), 0.3–0.7 mm, glabrous, papillate; petiole 0.6–1.8 mm, usually villous, rarely glabrous; blade ovate, 3–12 × 2–10 mm, base asymmetric, rounded to slightly cordate, margins entire or serrulate, apex acute to obtuse, surfaces usually villous, rarely 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. |
campanulate, 0.7–0.9 × 0.6–1 mm, glabrous or pilose; glands 4, pink, oval, oblong, or trapezoidal, 0.1–0.2 × 0.2 mm; appendages white to pink, flabellate, oblong, ovate, or nearly rectangular, 0.2–0.4 × 0.2–0.6 mm, distal margin entire. |
Staminate flowers | 20–25. |
10–25. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary glabrous or puberulent, styles 3–4 mm, 2-fid 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
ovary glabrous; styles 0.3–0.5 mm, 2-fid 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
Capsules | depressed-globose, 3.8–5 × 4–5 mm, 3-lobed, glabrous or puberulent; columella 3.6–4.5 mm. |
oblate-deltoid, cocci often elongated and terminating in an empty portion, 1.5–2 × 2.1–3.1 mm, glabrous; columella 0.9–1.5 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. |
gray-brown to red-brown, ovoid-oblong, weakly 4-angled in cross section, 1–1.4 × 0.6–0.8 mm, smooth, faintly rugose, or with inconspicuous 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; peduncles 0–1.8 mm. |
Euphorbia radians |
Euphorbia villifera |
|
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting spring–summer. | Flowering and fruiting early spring–early winter. |
Habitat | Pinyon-juniper woodlands, oak savannas, desert grasslands and scrub. | Riparian forests with walnuts and sycamores, juniper woodlands, pine-oak woodlands, mostly on limestone substrates. |
Elevation | 700–2500 m. (2300–8200 ft.) | 100–1400 m. (300–4600 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; TX; Mexico
|
TX; Mexico; Central America |
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.) |
Although Euphorbia villifera has been reported from New Mexico (W. C. Martin and C. R. Hutchins 1980), no vouchers to verify its presence there were located. In Texas, E. villifera is known from the Edwards Plateau westward into the trans-Pecos region. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 324. | FNA vol. 12, p. 293. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Poinsettia radians | Chamaesyce stanfieldii, C. villifera, E. stanfieldii, E. villifera var. nuda |
Name authority | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 8. (1839) | Scheele: Linnaea 22: 153. (1849) |
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