Euphorbia setiloba |
Euphorbia heterophylla |
|
---|---|---|
fringe spurge, shaggy spurge, Yuma sandmat |
Mexican fireplant, painted euphorbia |
|
Habit | Herbs, annual, with slender taproot. | Herbs, annual, with taproot. |
Stems | prostrate, mat-forming, 5–50 cm, villous with glistening glandular hairs. |
erect-ascending, 20–100 cm, sparsely pilose to villous; branches ± straight. |
Leaves | opposite; stipules distinct, filiform, rudimentary to 0.2 mm, glabrous or sparsely villous with glistening glandular hairs; petiole 0.5–1.5 mm, villous; blade oblong, ovate, or elliptic, 3–7 × 2–4 mm, base asymmetric, rounded, margins entire, apex obtuse, surfaces villous; weakly 3-veined from base, commonly only midvein conspicuous. |
usually alternate, occasionally opposite proximally; petiole 10–50 mm, pilose; blade narrowly lanceolate to elliptic or broadly obovate (then usually pandurate and 4-lobed), often polymorphic on single plants, 30–200 × 20–140 mm, base acute, margins sparsely glandular-serrulate, hirtellous, flat, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surface sparsely appressed-pilose, adaxial surface sparsely pilosulous to glabrate; venation pinnate, midvein prominent. |
Involucre | campanulate or urceolate, 0.7–1 × 0.5–0.8 mm, villous; glands 4, red to pink, oblong to slightly reniform, 0.1–0.2 × 0.2–0.3 mm; appendages white to pink, deeply incised into 3–6 triangular to subulate, attenuate, acute segments, 0.3–0.6 × 0.6–1 mm, segments entire. |
usually campanulate, occasionally nearly hemispheric, 1.5–1.9 × 1.2–1.8 mm, glabrous; involucral lobes divided into several linear, smooth lobes; gland 1, yellow-green, stipitate, clavate, 1–1.4 × 1–1.2 mm, opening circular (occasionally flattened from pressing), with annular rim, glabrous; appendages absent. |
Staminate flowers | 3–7. |
8–15. |
Pistillate flowers | ovary villous; styles 0.3–0.4 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length. |
ovary glabrous or puberulent; styles 0.8–1.3 mm, 2-fid 1/2 to nearly entire length. |
Capsules | subglobose to ovoid, 1–1.2 mm diam., villous; columella 0.9–1.1 mm. |
broadly ovoid, 2.8–3.8 × 4–5.3 mm, 3-lobed, usually glabrous, rarely sparsely puberulent; columella 2.1–2.8 mm. |
Seeds | pink to light gray, narrowly ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, 0.8–1 × 0.5–0.6 mm, dimpled or with faint transverse ridges that do not pass through abaxial keel. |
brown-gray to ashy gray, broadly deltoid, 2.4–2.8 × 1.9–2.4 mm, angular in cross section, dorsal face strongly acute-carinate, tuberculate, with broad rounded tubercles in 2 rows; caruncle 0.1 mm. |
Cyathia | solitary at distal nodes, nodes often congested toward tips of branches; peduncle 0.2–1.6 mm. |
peduncle 0.9–1.5 mm. |
Cyathial | arrangement: terminal dichasial branches usually 2, occasionally reduced to congested cyme, 1–2-branched (often congested and difficult to discern); pleiochasial bracts 2–4, often whorled, wholly green or paler green at base, similar in shape and size to distal leaves; dichasial bracts highly reduced, rarely absent in highly congested clusters. |
|
2n | = 28. |
|
Euphorbia setiloba |
Euphorbia heterophylla |
|
Phenology | Flowering nearly year-round in response to sufficient moisture. | Flowering and fruiting nearly year-round. |
Habitat | Desert scrub, blackbrush scrub, Joshua tree woodlands, grasslands, often in sandy areas. | Disturbed areas, roadsides. |
Elevation | 20–1600 m. (100–5200 ft.) | 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NM; NV; TX; UT; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa, Sonora)
|
Mexico; Central America; South America [Introduced, Ala., Ariz., Calif., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.Mex., Tex.; introduced also in Eurasia, Africa]
|
Discussion | Euphorbia heterophylla occurs from the southern United States, where it is likely naturalized, south through Mexico and Central America to South America. Because of its weediness, the precise native range in tropical and subtropical parts of the New World is not well understood. It has become widely established also in warm areas of the Old World. Leaf shape in this species is highly polymorphic within both populations and individuals. Euphorbia heterophylla can appear superficially similar to E. cyathophora but differs in its stipitate, circular involucral glands and its floral bracts that are at most very pale at the base (never colored as is typical in E. cyathophora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 12, p. 288. | FNA vol. 12, p. 323. |
Parent taxa | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Anisophyllum | Euphorbiaceae > Euphorbia > sect. Poinsettia |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Chamaesyce setiloba | E. geniculata, Poinsettia geniculata, P. heterophylla |
Name authority | Engelmann: in War Department [U.S.], Pacif. Railr. Rep. 5(2): 364. (1857) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 453. (1753) |
Web links |